Don't count out New Orleans casino row just yet

As reported by The Mercury News

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana - If New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's proposal to expand casino gambling in his hurricane-ravaged city was something of a surprise, Gov. Kathleen Blanco's response wasn't.

Blanco, whose campaign included opposition to more gambling, refused to put the issue on the agenda for the first of what may be many legislative sessions dealing with hurricane recovery.
But it's far too early to say that the governor has had the final word on New Orleans having its own strip of casinos. Gambling proposals in Louisiana, which has no shortage of legal ways to wager, have historically been met with an initial cold shoulder.
In turning aside Nagin's idea to have the casino issue considered by the Legislature next month, Blanco urged caution "in looking to the expansion of gambling as a quick fix to our economic problems in the city."

Not that Nagin was suggesting that casinos would be a "quick fix," though he said gambling in large hotels was "an incredible opportunity to accelerate growth." After all, New Orleans already has casinos because of the idea pushed in the early 1990s that gamblers would forever end the city's chronic fiscal problems.
Long before Katrina, that proved to be so much daydreaming.
Perhaps Nagin saw an opportunity that the state wasted once before. While Louisiana diddled about with a land casino monopoly in New Orleans and riverboat casinos that did little in the city besides suck in the locals' money, Mississippi jump-started tourist-oriented gambling strips along its coast and in Tunica.

But Katrina took out all 13 barge casinos in Gulfport and Biloxi, though the Mississippi Legislature did not take long to allow the gambling halls to be rebuilt - with land-based buildings only a few feet from shore. Shortly afterwards, Nagin floated his idea with visions of jobs and tourists.

For such a spur-of-the-monent idea, though, the complications were endless, which, Mississippi didn't have because of its free-market approach to gambling.

First off, Harrah's Entertainment Inc., which owns the downtown casino, has that pesky exclusivity agreement. Harrah's, which became a casino monster when it bought Caesars Entertainment, didn't get there by giving up golden gooses. The three riverboat casinos in the New Orleans area doubtlessly would have thrown in some opposition and demands.
History, though, suggests that time is always in favor of gambling in Louisiana.

Gov. Edwin Edwards' unsuccessful 1987 campaign included a pitch for a New Orleans casino, an idea widely dismissed then as bleating from a political has-been. Four years later, riverboats and video poker already were in, under Buddy Roemer's watch, and all Edwards had to do - before shaking down riverboat owners - was to add the downtown casino.

Slot machine casinos for race tracks were initially regarded as a no-can-do, but, today, three of the state's four race tracks have them and the Fair Grounds is in line too, though it won't be until late 2006, at best.

With two months not yet having passed since Katrina, and the price tag from the damage already in countless billions of dollars, the immediate landscape for Nagin's proposal, seemingly bleak, could change into a more historic outcome - passable.

Why?

Long before there was a Katrina, there was resentment aimed at New Orleans from the rest of the state: too many handouts from Baton Rouge without fiscal reforms and honesty in city government and too much attention and money spent on the NFL Saints and pro basketball's Hornets. Sooner or later, the entire state will be presented with a bill for reconstructing the city not held in fondness by a great deal of state lawmakers and their constituents, many of whom have social qualms about gambling.

At that time, the attitude towards gambling - at least to expanding it in New Orleans - could change to "If that's what they want, give it to them." Care to make a wager?

Breeders say slot machines could save racing industry

As reported by SunSentinel.com

OSCALA, Florida - Separated by miles of fence line, some white and others brown, pastures that have raised some of thoroughbred racing's greatest horses stretch across Marion County while the sport's next generation of stars grazes contentedly.

Many of thoroughbred racing's most successful farms are here: Bridlewood, Adena Springs, Dudley and Farnsworth to the west of Interstate 75; and to the east, Glen Hill, Ocala Stud, Vinery and Padua.

This land is largely responsible for Florida's 4,219 thoroughbred foals in 2004, second only to Kentucky.

But in the middle of this beauty, just beyond the training centers, undulating hills and picturesque barns, there is concern throughout the thoroughbred industry. With thoroughbred racing revenues fading, breeders are wrestling with a tough choice: maintain farms at high expense to support the industry they love, or sell their highly valuable land and further erode breeding in Florida.

It is, industry officials say, a dilemma they may have avoided had state legislators implemented guidelines and tax rates for Constitutional Amendment 4, the Broward County measure approved by voters in March legalizing slot machines at four pari-mutuel venues.

Without slot machine revenue to stop plummeting purses at Florida's racetracks, "we're going to go down pretty quick," said Richard Hancock, executive director of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders' and Owners' Association.

"My concern is we're going to be developing a lot of 10-acre lots for enthusiasts who want to own horses, but we're not going to have an industry," Hancock added. "We need to preserve the farms and the way of doing that is giving breeders and owners a better return on their investment, and the best way to do that now is the revenue we would receive from slot machines."

Hancock thinks slot machines at Gulfstream Park and, ultimately, Calder Race Course in Miami-Dade County, could double thoroughbred purses. The additional purse money would not only help boost breeders awards but would bring new owners into the game who are currently sitting on the sidelines because the return on their investment is negligible.

"And that will allow us to preserve the real character of these farms and preserve Ocala," Hancock said.

Marion County, says breeder Donna Wormser, is "the best place in the United States to raise and break a horse." Its farms have produced Kentucky Derby winners Smarty Jones, Silver Charm, Unbridled and Needles. This is where racing's last Triple Crown winner, Affirmed, was bred, along with Horse of the Year Holy Bull and Skip Away.

The area first attracted thoroughbred horsemen more than 60 years ago because of its limestone-rich soil and warm winters. As recently as a decade ago, "Ocala was a ghost town," Wormser said.

Breeder Diane Dudley, whose father, Jack Dudley, co-owned and bred 1956 Derby winner Needles, has similar recollections. "I remember State Road 200 was a two-lane road, and you hardly ever saw a car on it," she said.

Now, State Road 200 is strip malls and fast-food joints, Hooters and Best Buy. Marion County, specifically Ocala, is the second fastest-growing county per capita in the state, and developers are eagerly buying lots of between 400 and 1,000 acres for residential and commercial development, as well as for farms for other breeds of horses.

With a number of builders entering the housing market, including the nation's largest home builder, D.R. Horton, land is in such demand that some breeders are selling their larger farms and downsizing while others are simply getting out of the business.

The land once occupied by heritage thoroughbred farms owned by Bonnie Heath, Jack Dudley and Tartan Farms is now Heath Brook, a 900-acre residential and commercial development. The late John Franks' Southland Division farm, covering 1,000 acres, is being developed for residential property.

And earlier this year, Farnsworth Farm, named outstanding breeder in North America in 1996, announced it would sell its 700 acres and disperse its racing and breeding stock. Farnsworth sold 200 acres last month for a $3.2 million training center and residential community.

Hancock has seen Marion County grow from a population of 194,825 in 1990 to more than 303,000.

"And the estimate is we'll triple our size in the next 50 years," said Jaye Baillie, president and CEO of the Ocala/Marion County Chamber of Commerce. "So the thoroughbred farms are a concern, and Amendment 4 is very much on our minds."

There are a number of reasons for Marion County's population and development boom, according to Realtor Fred Roberts, a 40-year resident of Ocala.

For the outdoor enthusiast, there are three major lakes, the Ocala National Forest and The Florida Horse Park, which is attracting a number of events, including the U.S. Equestrian Federation Horse Trials in November.

Retirees, who make up 27 percent of Ocala's residents, according to Baillie, have come for affordable housing at senior developments. There also has been an increase in residents from South Florida, weary of hurricanes and eager to buy land that runs from $50,000 to $75,000 an acre.

"From a South Florida perspective, that's a pretty good deal, isn't it?" Wormser asked.

"Ocala is exploding," Baillie said. "In three years, the median housing cost has gone from $89,000 to $113,600, and our Hispanic population has risen from 2,012 in 1980 to 15,616.

"It's a vibrant community, but we're always concerned about our thoroughbred farms. The struggle we have is to preserve what we have and not have it all paved over."

Diane Dudley says the decision to sell the family's 180-acre farm on State Road 200 and downsize to 80 outside Ocala, "was a family decision."

"The land was too valuable to just raise horses," said Dudley, who raised 1997 Kentucky Derby winner Silver Charm.

Wormser, who bred or raised graded-stakes winners Prime Timber, Songandaprayer and Cherokee Run, said she is considering selling several hundred acres of her Enchanted Lake Farm, which backs up to Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian. A 300-acre lot adjacent to the south side of Golden Ocala recently sold for $5.5 million.

"Right now, the land values in the area are so high that you can't afford large farms unless you have serious money," Wormser said. "My taxes double every year and there's a point where you have to ask yourself, `Can I afford the luxury of keeping my horses on a big farm?' You can take the 10 richest people, people who are successful in other businesses, but with the purse structure [in Florida] and [training] fees, you can only take a beating for so long.