Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney recently introduced a bill that would make it illegal for sports betting operators to accept wagers on greyhound racing.
The senator is no fan of horse racing either, but knows he would be tilting at windmills if he tried to shut that industry down in his state. So he was satisfied for the moment to go after greyhound racing.
The Senate Judiciary and Ballot Measure 110 Implementation Committee held its first hearing on SB 1504 a week later. Nine states still allow live greyhound racing, and two of them are phasing it out. However, Oregon is a “multijurisdictional hub” for advance deposit wagering (ADW) operators that take parimutuel bets. So all greyhound racing bets come through Oregon.
Due to that, the Oregon Racing Commission would lose an estimated $7 million if SB 1504 becomes law.
Eventually the bill was amended until it was considerably different from the original draft. The part that punished operators for accepting dog racing bets was removed.
A part remained that banned future licensing of live greyhound races—of which there have been none for 18 years.
Courtney, who is retiring at the end of this year, included this statement about his now largely gelded bill: “The greyhound, which is a magnificent animal by anyone’s description, and one that I believe deserves our attention, because it is my understanding, from credible sources, the treatment of these animals is really very difficult to talk about.” He added, “They’re beaten very badly at times because they’re not winning, they’re doped, there are scratches all through their faces, they are put in cages that they cannot turn around in. I could go on and on. … I don’t want that in my state, I don’t like it, and I’m going to do everything I can to stop it.”
Rep. David Gomberg explained to US Bets what he thought happened with the bill: “Somebody got nervous,” he said. “If we eliminate the hubs, we would forgo a lot of money used for track veterinarians, state fairs, things like that.”
Churchill Downs and US Off-Track, which operate ADW wagering in the state, made large investments in lobbyists and the bill was largely revised.
