What the movies once did to vaudeville, casino gambling is now doing to thoroughbred horse racing in northeastern Illinois.
Nobody asked the government to step in and save the burlesque, but some people now expect the Illinois legislature to prevent the imminent shuttering of Arlington International Racecourse.
And perhaps something could be done. But the guiding question must be: Where’s the public benefit?
Certainly the taxpayers do not owe track owner Richard Duchossois a profit. The multi-millionaire industrialist placed a calculated bet in 1987 when, after winning state tax breaks along with permission to build off-track betting parlors, he replaced his fire-damaged racetrack with a world-class facility. His bet, it appears, was miscalculated.
Several factors have worked against Arlington, the most dramatic being the advent of riverboat gambling, with the grandest boat located just a few miles from the track. The consequent falloff in parimutuel betting has made Arlington unprofitable (after depreciation), prompting Duchossois this week to withdraw his application to the state for 1998 racing dates.
One way to prop up Arlington would be for the legislature to authorize slot machines there and at the state’s other horse tracks, all of which are scrambling to save what seems a dying form of entertainment. But making such a gift to a single industry would be unwise.
Grandstand slots might improve Duchossois’ bottom line, but they won’t necessarily boost the parimutuel-based purses whose steady decline has reduced Illinois to a second-class racing venue. Nor is there much likelihood that the legislature would expand legalized gambling on the eve of primary elections, or that the Arlington Heights Village Board would reverse its opposition to casino gambling.
Other prospective remedies, such as raising the tax on riverboats to subsidize the tracks or lowering the track tax far below that imposed on the boats, would be unfair and short-lived solutions. Besides, the next reworking of Illinois’ gambling laws needs to redress the biggest inequity of all–the state’s failure to deal in Chicago.
One idea worth exploring is deregulation. The marketplace is all but shouting that northern Illinois’ five horse tracks are at least three too many. But as long as the state racing board keeps allocating exclusive dates to the marginal operators, the necessary consolidation won’t occur. Let the racetracks run when they will. Then the strongest might survive.
Long term, though, the sport of kings appears destined to become just that. Tastes change, and not always for the better. The post parade and the photo finish are no longer any match for flashing lights and the splash of quarters into a tin pan.
It’s a shame . . . but no reason for a state bailout.
