The office of Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has issued an opinion stating that the proposed addition of historical horse racing (HHR) machines to the state’s racetracks would violate the gaming compact Arizona signed with the state’s Native American tribes.
The opinion, published February 22, said the amendments made to the gaming compact in 2021 specified exceptions to the exclusivity provisions of the impacts for tribes, but none of the exemptions include HHR machines, which compute historical race results into slot programs to create hybrid machines that operate like casino slots.
The opinion said that even if the legislature were to formally legalize HHR machines, it would trigger a so-called “poison pill” provision in the format that would release the tribes from any limits on the numbers or types of gaming machines in tribal casinos.
“Although (HHR) devices vary across manufacturers, the defining characteristic of such machines is that they are electronic or electro-mechanical devices that allow a player to engage in a game of chance and receive a prize for winning,” Mayes wrote, noting that allowing them to be used outside of tribal casinos would trigger the poison pill clause.
