Greyhound Park wants to participate in instant racing court case at Idaho Supreme Court

Coeur d’Alene Racing, operator of the Greyhound Park Event Center in Post Falls, has filed a petition to offer arguments in the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s lawsuit against the state of Idaho over the instant racing repeal bill. The company has hired former Idaho Attorney General David Leroy to represent it; he filed the petition today.

Because Coeur d’Alene Racing owns and operates 35 instant racing machines at its Post Falls facility, it is “greatly, financially and legally, interested in the outcome of this case,” Leroy wrote in the petition. He noted that the former dog racing track is “grandfathered” under Idaho law to allow wagering on simulcasts of races, but can no longer host live greyhound racing, as Idaho made that illegal in 1996.

“As a former greyhound racing site, it never had live horse racing at its establishment,” Leroy wrote. “Therefore, Coeur d’Alene Racing Ltd cannot return to live horse races, yet is no longer allowed to conduct greyhound racing by statute. Its circumstance is unlike that of any other historical racing facility. No other Idaho entity can adequately represent Coeur d’Alene Racing Ltd’s unique perspective and interests.”

Leroy wrote that Coeur d’Alene Racing favors upholding Gov. Butch Otter’s veto of the instant racing repeal bill, which the Coeur d’Alene Tribe contends is invalid, because Otter waited until after the deadline to return the vetoed bill to the Idaho Senate. He asked the Idaho Supreme Court’s permission to file a brief and participate in arguments on behalf of Coeur d’Alene Racing; you can read his full petition here .

The tribe filed its case in the Idaho Supreme Court on June 3; the court gave the state 14 days to respond. The bill passed both houses of the Idaho Legislature by more than two-thirds margins, after much debate and long, tense hearings; some lawmakers said they were duped two years earlier when they approved wagering on broadcasts of past horse races, called “historical racing,” to benefit Idaho’s live horse racing industry, but didn’t anticipate the slot machine-like “instant racing” machines that subsequently arrived.