Two Florida state Senators, Republican Miguel Diaz de la Portilla and Democrat Jo Abruzzo, filed a last-ditch decoupling amendment to a Department of Business and Professional Regulation bill, SB 1050. The amendment would delete language now in state law requiring dog and horse races to run live races if they want to offer other gambling activities, such as card rooms or slots. Later the Florida Standardbred Owners Association and United Florida Horsemen managed to restrict the decoupling amendment to greyhound racing. However, representatives of the state’s horse industry said that’s still “A giant step in the wrong direction.”
Parimutuels support decoupling since attendance—and wagers—have declined at dog and horse racetracks. But dog and horse interests claim decoupling would be the demise of their industry.
The amendment would remove language in current law stating that “for a cardroom license to be renewed the applicant must have requested, as part of its annual parimutuel license application, to conduct at least 90 percent of the total number of live performances” that were run the previous year. The amendment would not affect a provision requiring racetracks to run at least 100 races yearly, Diaz de la Portilla said.
He added he offered the amendment on behalf of lobbyists for the state’s parimutuels, whom he would not name. “The idea is to do a little decoupling, if you will. The bottom line is they would be able to run fewer performances but they would all run the same number per year. I wouldn’t even call it decoupling. I’ve always been a supporter of not requiring businesses to do something they lose money on,” Diaz de la Portilla said.
Jack Cory, lobbyist for the Florida Greyhound Association and the National Greyhound Association, responded, “The amendment is back-door decoupling. The tracks promised that when they got cardrooms, they would not reduce live racing. They’re going back on their word. The greed of the tracks is obscene to try to bring this up at this late date. Parimutuels are a state-regulated monopoly. The reason the monopoly was allowed was to run races, not to be cardrooms, not for off-track betting and it certainly wasn’t to be a slots casino, which is what they all want to become.”
In the House, state Rep. Matt Gaetz unsuccessfully attempted to add an amendment to the same bill that would legalize fantasy sports play.
