The West Virginia Greyhound Breeding Development Fund will not be eliminated, following an 11-23 vote against Senate Bill 285 which would have ended the fund effective July 1. Nine Republicans voted with Democrats to reject the measure.
The bill would have stopped transferring wagers on table games and video lottery machines to the fund. Instead those funds would have been directed to the Excess Lottery Revenue Fund for distribution by the legislature. The Department of Revenue’s fiscal note for the bill indicated the state would have gained $17.4 million if the breeding fund had been eliminated.
In addition, if the Greyhound Breeding Development Fund had ended, money remaining in the fund would have been distributed as follows: $3 million to retrain greyhound industry workers; $1 million to promote adoption of greyhounds at the Mardi Gras Casino in Kanawha County and Wheeling Island Casino in Ohio County; and a one-time $500 tax credit for West Virginians who adopt a greyhound, with a sunset of July 1, 2023.
Under the bill, the two racinos no longer would have been required to offer greyhound racing as a condition to having table games. In 2007, voters in those counties approved table games at the two casinos as long as they offered greyhound racing.
