The president of the company that operates Les Bois Park near Boise, Idaho has reacted strongly to the Senate vote to ban the machines that are doing so much to improve his bottom line.
The Senate voted 25-9 last week to rescind its approval two years ago of “instant racing” machines at the state’s eight racetracks. About 250 of the machines are deployed statewide in three racetracks so far.
After the Senate’s vote John Sheldon issued a statement that called the vote a vote “against Idaho’s horse racing industry.”
He noted that last year the machines brought the state $1 million in tax revenues and that the racetracks have invested $10 million to bring the machines to their operations. He added that more than 270 jobs are at stake at his racetrack.
He pointed out that “instant racing” is a heavily audited field and that the Idaho Racing Commission oversees the games. It also conforms to the state constitution, he said.
He called on the House to “take a more thorough look at the test results and audits and carefully consider the message this legislation sends to any business operating in our state, our industry and the many hard-working Idahoans now working in it.”
A heavy backer of the Senate vote was the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, which has said that the machines are too close to slot machines and are thus illegal. Other lawmakers, including Senator Bob Nonini, who voted no on the repeal, have said the courts should decide the issue.
Some who voted for the bill claim that the “instant racing” machines were promoted under false pretenses and that they are actually thinly disguised slot machines. The tribes go so far as to call the machines an “illegal hoax” that violates the state constitution.
That includes Senator Curtis McKenzie who declared, “I don’t think there is any way you can say that they are not a simulation of a slot machine—they were intended to be that. It’s clear that the product itself does not fit within our constitutional definition. I don’t think that is a debatable issue. I’m a trial lawyer, I often advise clients on whether to go to trial or not. A hundred juries out of 100 would find that these machines are simulations of slot machines. They clearly are.”
Senator Todd Lakey, who voted to allow “instant racing” in 2013, agreed. “I do feel what was represented was not installed. Call it creative marketing, call it whatever you want, you cannot justify making it like a slot machine.”
Deputy Attorney General Brian Kane said that when his office ruled in 2012 that the machines were constitutional that they were not the machines that ended up being installed. He told lawmakers, “The true question here is a policy question, is this the gambling you intended to occur?”
The House is expected to refer the bill to a committee and schedule a final vote in time for the governor to sign it and for the machines to be banned by July 1.
“Instant racing” has proven popular at the state’s three racetracks. The machines use historical races that have the names of the horses and jockeys removed, but the statistical information remains. Players bet on the outcome of the races as they would in real time races. They differ from true parimutuel betting in that bets are not pooled nor are odds adjusted as bets are made.
However during hearings before the Senate, the manufacturer of the machines, Race Tech LLC testified that the results are not set by a random number generator or by the race itself, but rather how the patron wagers.
This debate once again raises the question of whether the activity under scrutiny qualifies as a game of skills or a game of chance.
During the Senate hearings tempers flared and two men in their 80s on opposite sides of the fence, one a racetrack owner, and the other a lobbyist for a tribe, came close to blows.
The issue is so contentious that the Coeur d’Alene Tribe cancelled an annual Pow Wow at a greyhound park that operates the machines.
The legislature legalized the practice in 2013 with the intent of making racetracks profitable again.
The industry is in a nationwide decline with the exception of racetracks that have deployed slot machines. At the Les Bois Park racetrack patrons wagered more than $40 million, which made the facility profitable again.
Because of the Senate vote Nonini and several other lawmakers sent a letter to the director of the Idaho Lottery questioning whether slot machines at reservation casinos are legal.
Nonini testily remarked, “If we’re going to look at one, let’s look at them all,” according to the Spokesman-Review.
The director, Jeffrey Anderson, assured them that the slots are legal. Anderson not only oversees the lottery, he also provides oversight for tribal gaming.
Anderson cited an opinion by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that prevents the state from challenging the tribal slots as well as an initiative the voters passed in 2002, plus enabling legislation passed the following year, as well as findings by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Commission and the Department of the Interior.
The 9th Circuit in 2006 ruled that further lawsuits between Idaho and its tribes over video gaming machines were not allowed because the legal issues were settled law.
“I am constrained to follow those statutes in my capacity as Lottery Director,” Anderson wrote to the lawmakers. Regarding a separate question asking whether the tribe complies with the requirement that they distribute 5 percent of their net profits to local communities, Anderson wrote, “The Coeur d’Alene Tribe has been cooperative in providing evidence of their compliance with the compact terms and Idaho law on these three issue.”
Helo Hancock, who is a lobbyist for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, chided Nonini for his inquiry. “I would say Senator Nonini apparently hasn’t taken a look at federal laws, hasn’t taken a look at the gaming compacts, hasn’t taken a look at Proposition 1 or years of court history if he’s making accusations like that.” Proposition 1 was the 2002 voter initiative that legalized tribal gaming in Idaho.
