Mike Stout, a longtime greyhound kennel owner at the Woodlands in Kansas City, notified the track’s management that he would be leaving at the end of May earlier this year.
Stout had raced his greyhounds and operated a kennel at the Woodlands almost every year since it first opened in 1989. But the greyhound racing industry had fallen on tough times in recent years, especially in Kansas City. Stout could barely stay afloat financially with the ever-declining purse money.
Then in March, a few months after he shared his intentions of leaving, everything changed. The Kansas legislature passed a law that allowed the track to put in slot machines. A local referendum was passed three months later. Stout was astonished and decided he wasn’t leaving the Woodlands.
“It was unbelievable because they had been trying for so long and it was such a big surprise,” Stout said. “If it wouldn’t have happened, I’m sure the Woodlands wouldn’t be racing today.”
Woodlands general manger Jamie LaRocca confirmed Stout’s suspicion. LaRocca said that the track had lost at least two million dollars for the past five years and the owners were disenchanted after being denied slot machines for 15 straight years.
But what a difference the promise of 800 slot machines can make. The machines will bring newfound wealth to the Woodlands, its employees and the kennel owners. When the slot machines are implemented in May or June of 2008, the Woodlands will become the ninth greyhound track in the nation with the gambling device. Around the nation, slot machines are saving the sport of greyhound racing.
“Places have gone from barely hanging on to having slots, having the building paid for, renovations are going on, the dog men’s purses are great – it’s just a snowball effect,” LaRocca said. “It just helps every entity of the race track itself.”
Kennel owners make money from a complex point system. Currently at the Woodlands, the value of one point is $25. If a dog comes in fourth place in a race, the kennel is usually credited with around one point, which would be $25 right now. But after the slots are put in, LaRocca said the value of one point would likely rise immediately to $80. A top grade race is worth around seven points so that would mean with slot machines, every victory would be worth around $600 for the kennel owner.
At race tracks with slot machines, kennel owners have seen purses rise by as much as six times what they were before slot machines. Iowa was the first state to allow slot machines at race tracks in 1995. Bluffs Run Greyhound Park in Council Bluffs, Iowa saw the value of one point rise from $20 before slot machines to $130 now.
Even if the total money being gambled on racing declines, the purses will stay high because in law, the slot machines are part of the race track.
“Our law says they have to supplement the purses from the profits of the casino because it was a dog track with slots added as opposed to a casino with dog racing added,” Bob Hardison, kennel owner at Bluffs Run, said. “They wanted to make sure we were rewarded.”
The law in Kansas reads close to the same. The slot machine addition also has kennel owners breeding and raising more dogs.
Stout, who has a greyhound farm just outside of Topeka, said he was only raising 15 to 20 dogs per year before the slot machine announcement. But now there’s closer to 100 dogs on his farm.
“We’ve all just been struggling for so long to survive and now it’s an opportunity to hopefully make some money again,” Stout said. “And revive the sport and revive our industry.”
Reviving the sport, however, has proven to be trickier at sites with slot machines. Although the tracks are making enough money to make the sport profitable, they aren’t attracting enough new customers to make it relevant.
At Bluffs Run only a little more than five million dollars were bet on live greyhound racing last year. In 1994, the year before the track received slot machines, more than 34 million dollars were bet on the races. Hardison said it showed that slot machines overshadowed the sport.
“One thing we’ve learned in Iowa is that once they get slot machines added to the dog track part, they don’t care as much as they used to,” Hardison said. “There’s nothing more profitable than casino gaming.”
Stout said he hoped the Woodlands didn’t fall into a similar complacency once the profit from slot machines started piling up. He said it would be up to the management to attract customers to greyhound racing by educating them about the sport.
LaRocca said he expected more people to bet on greyhound racing after the slot machines were unveiled. And if not, he vowed not to leave the sport behind.
“As far as the Woodlands is concerned, ownership is fully committed to making sure a lot is going into the racing product,” LaRocca said.
Greyhound track managers and kennel owners seem determined to use the slot machines as a means to bring the sport back to national prominence. One of the main obstacles standing in the way is that most people don’t understand that gambling on greyhounds is a form of pari-mutuel wagering. In pari-mutuel betting, the gambler is playing against the other bettors who put money into the pool and not the house like traditional betting.
The payout is calculated by the odds and the amount of money invested in the pool. Many greyhound racing supporters believe explaining the techniques of pari-mutuel wagering to casual gamblers could increase interest. With race tracks slowly becoming casinos, there is a perfect venue for this type of education to take place.
“It certainly looks to be the trend at all race tracks and the thing that’s coming,” Gary Guccione, National Greyhound Association president, said. “I’m here at a symposium right now and a lot of the discussion is converting race tracks to casinos. It’s the hot issue.”
But not everyone is thrilled about the Woodlands future addition. Part of the reason the law took so long to pass was because of opposition from the Native American community, which feels casinos at race tracks infringe upon their rights. There are also organizations like Grey 2K USA that wish to eradicate greyhound racing all together. With more money being pumped into the sport, their mission becomes increasingly more difficult.
Mike Stout now waits impatiently for the day that the Woodlands floor is covered with slot machines. Because Stout knows what it means to him financially and what it could mean to the sport.