The age-old economic theory of supply and demand has taken on a whole new meaning for one of Anderson’s once lucrative crown jewels. With the demand for alternative gambling rising steadily, Hoosier Park President Richard Moore hopes the potential passing of House Bill 1835 today will offer a well-needed supply of options for the Centaur, LLC. business trying to rekindle the revenue draws of yesteryear.
With customers constantly seeking new and various means to spend their entertainment dollar, the addition of approximately 2,500 slot machines at Hoosier Park might be the golden ticket the Indiana horse racing industry needs to survive in an extremely competitive market.
“There’s always competition,” remarked Moore, an employee at Hoosier Park since 1994. “Not only at Indiana Downs, but competition from the Colts, Pacers, restaurants, movie theaters, there’s all kinds of competition. We face a lot of it.”
With Hoosier Park’s yearly purse hit hard since the opening of Shelbyville’s Indiana Downs in 2002, the effects of local competition measured at $24 million as the city’s racetrack plunged into debt. However, after the recent buyout approved by the Indiana Horse Racing Commission, handing 100 percent ownership to Centaur from Churchill Downs Inc., the deficit has flatlined, but the matters of today far dwarf the worries of the past.
More concerned by emerging customer trends and interests along with the ever-changing global competition that goes well beyond the split draw issues brought about by the divergence created by Indiana Downs, Moore believes adaptation holds the key to prosperity.
“Legislation would help us reach out to a much broader demographic. Looking around the rest of the country where slot machines have been introduced it brings in a different group of people than just those that may typically come for horse racing alone. So you got an additional product offered, and you have the horse racing for those who like that,” said Moore. “We’ve been pushing this for years now. We’ve seen what can happen in other parts of the country where slot machines have been introduced and for the most part have been successful.”
Studying the profit influx generated at other racetracks in states such as West Virginia, Iowa, New York, Florida and Pennsylvania, Hoosier Park is betting on the “racino” approach.
Already alternating its seasonal race schedule to eliminate head-to-head competition with fellow IHRC member Indiana Downs — running standardbreds and thoroughbreds in 61-day periods — 12 months of simulcast racing in Anderson and three off-track betting locations available in Merrillville, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis aren’t enough these days for Hoosier Park.
As studies show, the growing popularity of online betting has also played its hand in saturating the market and consequently hurt the racing industry with nearly 20 million Americans on average participating in global Internet gambling per year, according to a report issued by the Federal Trade Commission.
A billion-dollar-a-year business since 1995, according to a report in the American Bar Association Journal, gambling Web sites range in the thousands, devoted solely to satisfying the urge of gamblers without the need of travel while offering a wide-range of indulgences including online poker and sportsbooks.
As the times and demand have changed, so has the definition of entertainment gambling, which both Hoosier Park and Indiana Downs are attempting to redefine with the inclusion of slot machines to keep abreast in a volatile realm of competition.
“(The industry has) been unprofitable, to be quite honest, close to multi-million dollars the last two or three years,” Moore said. “There’s been discussions (with Indiana Downs). We’re both part of the Indiana Horse Racing and Breeding Coalition, which is made up of the three different breeds plus the two racetracks, so it’s been a unified effort. We wanted to have a united voice, so the message we’re sending out makes sense and everyone is basically taking it from the same handbook. … If we get legislation passed, it’ll work for the entire horse racing industry, especially here in Indiana.”
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March 20, 2007
10:41 a.m. - Addition could spell comeback
Slot machine bill passing might reverse profit loss
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Photo gallery: AU vs Mount Saint Joseph Baseball
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