Wyoming’s horse racing industry is exploding right now. Some of the biggest purses in the state’s history are happening this summer, and off-track betting locations are popping up across the state. But the industry’s rapid growth has left some asking: What power do local governments and residents have to regulate the influx of betting sites, horse races and revenue? Lawmakers have been working on bills to address the bubbling conflict. Wyoming Public Radio’s Jordan Uplinger has been tracking them in a social media series. He spoke with Kamila Kudelska to give listeners an update on the industry.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
KK: I want to get to what lawmakers are working on, but maybe you can help us understand this industry. There’s horse racing, historic horse racing, pari-mutuel wagering…
JU: Yeah, lots of moving parts. But let's start at the beginning.
In one form or another, racing has been with Wyoming for well over 100 years. There were big races like the 1908 Evanston to Denver horse race, and smaller races like horse-pulled sled races. And we found pictures [at the University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center] circa the early 1900s that look like more standard race events that people would be familiar with today.
Around the ’70s, simulcasting was legalized alongside the creation of the 100-mile rule. This means live horse races could be broadcast, allowing people to bet money even if they aren’t present at the race itself. The 100-mile rule, which is a really old rule, means that when a live race event is taking place, off-track betting locations within 100 miles have to close in an effort to get people to that race track.
KK: So in the past, the focus really was being physically at the race track for events. Why did the industry falter?
JU: For one thing, horse racing is expensive. Owners treat their horses the way celebrities might treat a prized classic car. You bring it out for a showing or an event, but the rest of the time is spent keeping that car in pristine condition. Equally, horses require dental care, deworming, vaccinations, a strict diet, regular training, a means of transportation and a stable environment for rest.
By the ’90s, a cultural fall-off had begun. Horse racing was becoming old school, losing out to more popular sports in viewership. Younger people were more likely to watch baseball or basketball, as opposed to a sport where animals might end up dying on the track.
Enter the 2000s, and betting on a race has to compete with online betting, sports betting. By 2009 and 2010, there were 0 horse races in the state hosted for the first time in 42 years. They hay-days, if you will, were long gone.
KK: Yet today, we see towns like Evanston running out of hotel space for a single-day racetrack event. How did it go from a cultural pastime to a major money maker today?
JU: Well, like a dark horse, politics was playing out in the background. If we back up a bit to 2003, these things called historic horse racing (HHR) machines start popping up. Track owners and supporters of the sport took a trip to Kentucky, which was attempting to revive their industry. They came back and told lawmakers that these HHR machines would be the saving grace of the industry.
KK: What exactly is an HHR machine?
JU: Imagine a classic slot machine, the kind you would find in Las Vegas or Atlantic City back in the day. The difference is, the kind of algorithm for a spin is based on horse races from history, not pure chance.
In any given pull, your bet could be riding on a West Coast Derby race from 1974, betting on some horse that could be named The Bee’s Knees. Of course, there's been hundreds of thousands of races, so mathematically figuring out which race, what horse and what time they raced is basically impossible.
In Wyoming, only 13 counties have voted to allow gaming machines at all. The historic horse racing machines are in off-site betting locations, which are a lot like casinos. There’s often a bar, it looks like a mini casino.
KK: I understand they’re classified differently now, but the slot part sounds a little like a gambling device.
JU: Well, circa 2003, the city of Cheyenne would agree with you. They had the HHR machine removed for that very reason, and 3 years later, the Wyoming Supreme Court declared them to be gambling devices – gambling is illegal under Wyoming law.
But they’re all over the state now, and that’s because seven years after the Supreme Court ruling, lawmakers made some changes and essentially legalized HHR machines as skill-based gaming terminals.
Now, lawmakers and the industry at large also took other actions. They promoted events like dog racing, and lawmakers expanded the Gaming Commission so that administrative and regulatory action could keep up with a growing industry. But the driver of the rebirth of this industry is these skill-based machines, these gaming terminals, as some call them, terminals that are bringing in money at a much faster rate than sitting in front of a television and waiting for a live race broadcast.
KK: I saw that cities and towns have made more than $12 million so far this year. But your reporting said there were over 40 off-site betting locations and over 3,000 HHR machines. That’s a lot! How do local governments feel about this?
JU: That's what lawmakers are discussing. If your county voted to legalize gaming decades ago, you might not have signed up for thousands of these HHR machines popping up across from your local library.
So lawmakers are working on a bill that would require local approval for simulcasting, a way to give local governments a little more control over new sites. But lawmakers don’t want it to be an excuse for town and city councils to “pick winners and losers.” For Rep. Steve Johnson (R-Cheyenne), he believed that type of less visible corruption on the local level would hurt the market.
Steve Johnson: I'm a free market guy. I think if 1,000 establishments want to come into Laramie County, let them. The free market is gonna weed them out.
JU: Sen. John Kolb (R-Rock Springs) responded, saying that's what we have now.
John Kolb: Because guess what, you have an application right now, and you go before the Gaming Commission and go through the process, and you're not a criminal – they shall issue a license, and they have been issuing licenses. They have not denied licenses. The counties have been sued for denying a license. There is no local control.
JU: Lawmakers are going to hedge their bets. They’ll review one bill that gives local governments a level of control by basically allowing them to pass or deny a new gaming location through zoning laws. The state Gaming Commission would still retain most of the approval power.
The Gaming Committee will also see a second bill, where local governments would have more direct power to approve or deny permits.
KK: A lot going on. Before we wrap up here, what's next for your social media gaming series?
JU: While there's also an anti-money laundering bill draft that’s being considered in a different committee, I’m interested in the mental health impacts of gaming. So in the meantime, I’ll be looking into that and see what sort of impact HHR machines and race tracks have on local communities.
Editor’s Note: You can find Uplinger’s social media series on gaming on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.
