Casino Gambling Brings Back Historic Florida Horse Track
The iconic flamingos are once again eyeing crowds coming to gamble at famed Hialeah Park in Florida. The track shook off an eight-month coma to reopen after Thanksgiving this year, as the installation of a casino on the grounds has brought the return of horse racing.But once again, the salvation for racing provided by combining with a casino may end up with the tail wagging the dog. Florida horsemen have learned a lesson being taught in much of the US, that turning to slots gambling for rescue may end up with racing on the outside, looking in at casino gambling.
On opening day, November 28th, almost 27,000 people showed to watch Hialeah shake off the rust and return to racing. By the third day of operation, the crowd had shrunk to barely over a thousand.
While tracks see slots as a dangling rope saving them from oblivion, slot operators see tracks simply as a key to get established, soon to be discarded if possible. Like Rhode Island's dog tracks before them, Florida's horse and dog racing venues welcome casinos, only to see proposals raised to cut back or even eliminate live racing.
Racing enthusiasts may well welcome the preservation of historic sites and venues through the use of slots, but realism dictates that businessmen seeing vastly profitable resources, like racinos, carrying expensive subsidies, like tracks, will move to subtract the dead weight. Like John Brunetti, the Hialeah Park owner, told WKRG-TV, horse racing is now "a means to an end," just a way to acquire casino licensing.
