CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) – One of the companies that had its historic horse racing terminals shut down over concerns they were too much like slot machines is hoping to get back on track later this month with a limited offering of different games.
Eric Nelson, part owner of Wyoming Downs, said he will seek approval for the new horse racing games during the Wyoming Pari-Mutuel Commission meeting set for Nov. 13 in Casper.
About a month ago, the commission suspended use of the machines after a Wyoming attorney general’s opinion concluded the historic horse racing terminals do not conform with state law that prohibits slot machine-type gambling in most of the state. Terminals located in bars and off-track betting sites were turned off and employees were laid off.
The machines, also known as instant horse racing, allow bettors to place wagers on horse races that have already been run, but without any information about which races they’re betting on. The machines have other levels and functions that mimic slot machines.
Wyoming Downs proposes to substitute two or three different games based on older technology that Nelson believes will satisfy the commission’s concerns because they don’t have the same slot-machine type functions.
Meantime, the machines that have been shut down are still being reprogrammed in hopes of being restarted later this year or early next year, Nelson said.
“It’s just something where in the software here they want us to change the mechanics of it and with that we’re going to make the changes and get back up and running,” he said in a telephone interview.
Nelson said the loss of revenue while the terminals have been shut down will mean fewer live horse races next year because the profits from historic horse racing games subsidized both live and simulcast horse racing in Wyoming.
“We don’t know if we’ll have two days or 10 days of racing,” he said. “But I know purses will be lower and the number of days will be lower. We won’t hit what we hoped and planned earlier in the year.”
Wyoming Downs held live horse races on 16 days this year.
Wyoming Horse Racing LLC, the other company that offers live, simulcast and historic horse racing, held nine live horse races this year.
Both Wyoming Downs and Wyoming Horse Racing continue to offer simulcast racing around the state.
Nelson said neither live horse racing nor simulcast racing earn enough money to sustain themselves once expenses and prizes are taken into account.
In 2014, historic horse racing drew $113.6 million in wagers in the state. By comparison, $1.15 million was wagered on live horse racing and $6.2 million on simulcast racing during the same year.
Jon Clontz, CEO of the new Wyoming Lottery Corp., which sells tickets for Powerball, Mega Millions and the state Cowboy Draw games, said he hasn’t seen any evidence that the lottery has benefited from historic horse racing being shut down.
“We didn’t see a big spike in sales from those machines being shut off,” Clontz said.
– Associated Press – Sunday, November 1, 2015