Panel Keeps Deadline On Simulcast Dog Racing Bill Would Have Allowed Betting Past July 1, 1999

Lawmakers killed legislation Monday that would have allowed simulcast betting on dog races in Idaho indefinitely.

“This is a blatant breach of faith,” Rep. Jim Stoicheff, D-Sandpoint, told the House State Affairs Committee. “Dog racing is the cruelest sport … of any we know.”

Idaho banned dog racing in 1996, amid complaints of cruelty to greyhounds that raced at the state’s sole dog-racing track in Post Falls. At the time, Stoicheff persuaded legislators to give the operators of the Coeur d’Alene Greyhound Park until July 1, 1999, to stop taking bets on simulcasts of dog races held elsewhere.

Track operators said they had a contract that ran until that date.

Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden, presented a bill to the committee Monday to delete the deadline.

“The last time in here was two years ago; the world has totally changed since then,” Clark told the committee. “Simulcasting is much different.”

Clark said newly liberalized gambling laws in Washington and the opening of tribal casinos have made the dog racing simulcasts crucial to the operation of the Greyhound Park.

Without the legislation, he said, “We would lose 68 jobs.”

That’s the number employed at the Post Falls operation, which also hosts charitable bingo, betting on simulcasts of horse races, special events and other activities.

Stoicheff said Clark wasn’t in the Legislature “when this whole tragedy started.”

He recalled how legislators first voted to legalize dog racing in the 1980s.

“I was one of the ones that voted for it, because it would mean jobs for North Idaho,” Stoicheff said. “We were told a bunch of fairy tales about the dogs, that they were all well treated and that they were adopted out when they were done. Then the truth began to come out.”

Dog carcasses turned up at the Kootenai County landfill. Complaints about abuse of dogs surfaced.

“This is horrible,” Stoicheff said.

But when the cutoff threatened the new contract between Les Bois, operator of a large Boise horse race track, and the Post Falls facility, “We made a deal,” Stoicheff said. “The votes were there … to repeal it outright. But we gave them that two years, and now they’re reneging.”

He added, “These people lied the first time, they lied the second time, and now they’re trying to lie a third time.”

Rep. Bill Deal, R-Nampa, protested, “We are talking about an economic impact into the Coeur d’Alene area. There will be a lot of jobs lost.”

Plus, he said, “This does have a definite economic impact on the live race purse for the horse racing industry in Idaho.”

According to figures submitted to the state racing commission, betting on simulcasts of dog races now amounts to between 15 percent and 28 percent of simulcast bets placed in Boise, Coeur d’Alene, Pocatello, Jerome and Idaho Falls.

A portion of that money goes to subsidize purses for live horse races.

Duayne Didericksen, general manager of Les Bois Park, said when the expiration date rolls around, “Hopefully we can replace that revenue with something. If not, we may have to close it (the Post Falls facility).”

The state figures showed the amount bet on simulcasts at the Greyhound Park totaled $13 million in 1997, with about a quarter bet on dog races and the other three-quarters bet on horse races.

Kootenai County Commissioner Dick Compton said the county gets a cut from the bets of about $35,000 a year, which it passes on to local tourism promotion efforts. Compton, who attended the committee meeting, said he thought the legislation got “short-circuited.”

“They’re not racing dogs there any more,” he said. “It’s just simulcasting.”

Rep. Wayne Meyer, R-Rathdrum, who co-sponsored the legislation with Clark, agreed.

“The only thing they’re hurting are the people in Idaho,” Meyer said. “If we don’t simulcast dog races, it isn’t going to make a bit of difference in those other states (where dog races are held).”

Reps. Jeff Alltus, R-Hayden, and June Judd, D-St. Maries, voted against Stoicheff’s move to kill the bill without holding a full committee hearing on it.

But Alltus said he opposed the bill. He just wanted to allow Clark a hearing as a courtesy to another lawmaker from his North Idaho district.

Judd said she opposed Stoicheff’s move and thinks the Post Falls facility has “good things … happening up there.”

Didericksen and other sponsors offered to bring the committee information about how the greyhound racing industry has improved, if the panel would grant a hearing. But the committee voted 10-8 to back Stoicheff instead.

Stoicheff said he meant nothing personal against Clark or Meyer, but he thought the racing interests were offering lawmakers “a bunch of bull” by saying the track would have to shut down without dog-race betting.

“If I went in there to bet on dogs and they didn’t have that anymore, naturally what you would do is bet on the horse races. What’s the difference?”

, DataTimes