Inside the Saddles ‘N Silks off-track betting parlor in Richmond, horse-racing gamblers huddle around television sets with their hopes linked to small betting slips.
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They’re quick to lament the slide of the horse-racing industry since the onset of riverboat casinos.
A new package of racing-industry reforms signed into law by Gov. Jim Edgar on Tuesday offers occasional bettors like Bob Kasprowick of McHenry an encouraging sign that racing in the state may be on the rebound.
“It’s a great idea that’s very much needed,” Kasprowick said.
But on Thursday, the reforms that are expected to usher in a new era of horse racing in Illinois by granting tracks more flexibility to lure bettors is already drawing a mixed response from key leaders of the state’s $1.4 billion industry.
Executives of Arlington International Racecourse, owners of the Richmond OTB, are especially critical of the measure because they say it does little to address the sport’s long-term prospects for survival. And it does little to thwart the threat posed by the popularity of riverboat gambling, they said.
“This amounts to little more than a wash as far as real help,” said Paul O’Connor, a track spokesman. “In this business you just can’t stay afloat if you lose money like we are.”
Arlington estimates that it will lose $6 million to $8 million during its shortened 55-day season, which kicks off June 23. O’Connor said that for now, Arlington has abandoned its request for a riverboat casino license and that track officials are resigned to simply playing out the season despite the losses.
The reforms are centered on rejuvenating the declining sport by injecting some $38 million into the state’s horse-racing industry. A key provision allows tracks to open another 14 OTBs.
And it will help them lure more bettors into these parlors by allowing OTBs to simulcast more races from other parts of the country. The changes are designed to bolster purses, something that is sorely needed to keep horse racing viable in the state, industry leaders say.
“Bigger purses will bring the people back into horse racing, and that’s what this will do,” said Pat Whitworth, secretary of the Illinois Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Foundation, from her Downstate Collinsville office.
But Arlington executives said they got shortchanged in the reforms because they don’t need additional OTB sites and because the influx of customers will be of marginal help.
“We already have three (OTB licenses) that we’ve chosen not to use because it wouldn’t be economically feasible. We don’t need another one or two,” O’Connor said.