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PLAINS TWP. — All bets may be off on live horse racing at the Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono next week, thanks to another logjam in Harrisburg politics.
Gov. Tom Wolf has warned that the state’s six horse racing tracks, including the Downs, will be closed Oct. 30 unless a funding shortfall is resolved.
But Mike Bean, the president of the Mohegan Sun complex, said Friday it is so close to the end of the racing season that such a move, while sounding dire, would have “minimal impact.”
“The racing season typically ends in about 30 days, then resumes in March,” Bean said. Closing the track “would impact us, but with it being so close to the end of our season it wouldn’t be by much, as opposed to closing in the spring.”
Wolf spokesman Jeff Sheridan said the problem should come as no surprise. “It has existed for many years, we have been talking about it from the beginning.”
The problem, he added, is rooted in how the tracks are financed. The state taxes wagers on the races and uses that money to sustain the State Racing Fund, which in turn finances the Horse Racing and Harness Racing Commissions set up to regulate the industry.
Bets at the tracks have dropped by nearly 71 percent statewide since 2001, to the point that the tax income is far below what the Racing Fund needs.
“We have to pay for oversight of the races,” Sheridan said. “The bottom line: We are operating with a little over $11 million in what is called pari-mutuel tax revenue and it costs $20 million at least.
“We cannot afford even another month,” he added.
On Thursday the state Department of Agriculture issued a written statement echoing that argument. “The system is broken, and it needs to be fixed,” Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said in the statement. The department houses the Horse and State Harness Racing Commissions.
Both Redding and Sheridan stressed the problem has nothing to do with the ongoing budget impasse. Wolf, a Democrat, and the Republican-led legislature has been unable to agree on a budget since Wolf vetoed the legislature’s initial proposal June 31.
Sheridan said the system has developed a “structural deficit” and requires a complete overhaul. Wolf had proposed transferring $6.5 million into the fund “but that would not solve the fiscal problem.”
Wolf supports a bill passed by the Senate that would require the industry to pay for drug testing of horses, which the Department of Agriculture estimates will cost about $9 million this year, Sheridan said. The industry opposes the bill.
Bean was diplomatic on the dispute. “It’s a challenge, and I’m aware that the operators, horsemen, legislators and governor are working hard to come up with a solution.”
While revenue from casino gambling at Mohegan Sun helps support the track, that money goes primarily into the purses won by bettors and improvements in the facilities. It does not support the State Racing Fund.
Bean also said the amount of money being wagered at the local track has been dropping in sync with the statewide trend.
As to why betting on the ponies has dropped so dramatically, Bean said that’s easy to explain.
“There is more competition for gambling dollars,” he said, “not just in Pennsylvania but throughout the country.”