That slots post: Yes on 2

On Tuesday, voters nationwide will make major decisions regarding the future of our country.  In the horse racing world, none of those decisions will be more important than the one that Maryland voters will make: whether or not to allow slot machines in the Free State.

The Washington Post and its anti-slots pals have kept up a steady drumbeat against the proposal, which would alter the state’s Constitution to allow the one-armed bandits.  Nevertheless, polls indicate fairly strong support for the proposal which would, if nothing else, end a debate that has dragged on for more than a decade.

Just last week, however, slots opponents received a shot of good news from an unexpected source.  CNet founder Halsey Minor, much in the news of late for his apparently rebuffed proposal to purchase and revitalize the erstwhile grande dame of Florida racing, Hialeah Park, has turned his attention to the distressed assets of Magna Entertainment (does Magna have other kinds of assets?), including Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course.  He told reporters that, if he owned the tracks, he would not have slots in them.

Indeed, in a fit of hyperbole, he said that he “would rather go to jail than implement” slots.

Subsequently, our pals The Bug Boys asked the question: If not slots, what?  To their surprise — and Mr. Minor’s credit — they received an answer.  The essence of it: “Let’s rebuild the sport of racing by starting out doing the basics right,” he suggests, such as rehabilitating the facilities, improving customer service, etc.

All correct, all unobjectionable — and all, for the moment, beside the point.

Mr. Minor is correct in saying that slots are no long-term panacea for what ails the sport of kings.  At the end of the day, racing’s problems can only be cured by racing.

But as an owner whose horses run primarily in Maryland — and one who does not enjoy playing slot machines and was, for a long time, opposed to slots — the truth is clear: Maryland racing needs slot machines, and it needs them now.

This is not because Maryland racing is badly run or the facilities are old, although one can make a good case that both these things are true.  It’s also not because racing is no longer relevant; the 25,000 people who turned out for Maryland Million day and the crowded grandstand at Laurel for last Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup suggest that, for many people, racing is plenty relevant.

Maryland racing needs slot machines quite simply because our direct competitors — West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Delaware — all have them, and we cannot compete with those states without having the same revenue-generating tools available to us that they have.

Delaware, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia are direct competitors both geographically — as Maryland shares borders with all three — and conceptually.  We have similar racing programs, compete for similar horses, and occupy roughly congruent — or at least contiguous — niches in bettors’ minds.

It’s easy enough to follow betting trends: better purses lead to bigger fields, and bigger fields lead to larger handle.  Bettors like big fields, since big fields lead to better betting opportunities, more chances to cash the kinds of tickets that let you brag about yourself.

And at every level, our nearby competitors are offering purses that far outstrip those available in Maryland — and it’s entirely because of slot machines.  In Delaware, a first-level allowance race — that old staple of the racing calendar — comes with a $38,000 purse; in Maryland, the same race offers just $30,000 (dirt) or $26,000 (turf).

While Maryland’s $18,000 claimer — a typical mid-range race in the mid-Atlantic — has a $22,000 purse, at Philadelphia Park, the purse is $30,000.  Even at tiny Charles Town Races, purses for $5,000 claimers are a little bit better than they are in Maryland.

Play out those differences over, say, a 10-race season for one horse.  Our $18,000 warhorse would have the opportunity to earn about $50,000 more racing in Philly than in Laurel.  That buys a lot of hay and oats.

As with any business, the bottom line, ultimately, is the bottom line.  Increasingly, Maryland-based owners and breeders are voting with their feet, racing elsewhere, sending their mares to foal out-of-state or, in the case of Northview Stallion Station, opening up a division in Pennsylvania to take advantage of terrific breeder bonuses available there — because of slot machines.

The long-term outlook for racing is pretty clear: states with slots will have the time and revenue to re-focus on building their business and getting, as Mr. Minor suggests, the basics right.  Those without the additional revenues of slots (or some other additional revenue) will become irrelevant or, worse, non-existent.

And now, after years of bickering, it’s our choice.  Please vote “Yes”on Question 2.