Janelle Irwin Taylor
A push to allow thoroughbred horse tracks to hold card room and slot machine permits without a requirement that they also host live racing has stalled in the Senate, but continues to move through the House.
A Senate version of the measure (SB 408) was temporarily postponed at the Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government.
A House version (HB 1467) cleared the Commerce Committee, teeing it up for the full House floor. The decoupling measure, originally Rep. Adam Anderson’s bill (HB 105), was wrapped into a broader bill containing several other gambling measures, including strengthening penalties for illegal gambling and authorizing fantasy sports.
Numerous group representatives and members of the public either waived in opposition to the bill or spoke against it, most directly to the decoupling provision, which separates live horse racing from the ability to maintain slot machine and card room permits.
Opponents to the bill worry its passage would lead to the end of thoroughbred horse racing in Florida. Throughout the committee process for both bills, opponents all shared a similar message: If this bill becomes law, it will imperil horse racing and other industries it supports.
According to the American Horse Council, that includes a $3.24 billion economic impact and more than 33,000 jobs. And that doesn’t include the tourism impact from horse racing, many speakers noted.
But the bill’s backers argue that the industry is already on the decline and is being propped up through unsustainable state subsidies.
From 2022 to 2023, the share of the North American foal crop fell from 6.4% to 6%, and the number of Florida registered foals dropped by 7.3%. The number of Florida-bred stallions dropped from 72 in 2023 to just 60 in 2024, a nearly 17% reduction. That’s after the number of Florida-bred stallions dropped by a staggering 76% from 2004, when 259 were bred in the state.
Auction results for Florida-bred thoroughbreds is also in decline, with 434 weanlings sold in 2004, but just 10 in 2024. And the average price paid for the weanlings dropped nearly 24% over that period.
So too are racing performance and participation trends on the decline, with 10,331 Florida-bred starters in 2004 and just 3,273 in 2024. Those numbers are according to the Jockey Club, a publication even critics acknowledge has shared accurate data.
Last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation establishing permanent yearly distributions of $27.5 million “to promote breeding and racing horses.”
While not directly tied to either the House or Senate measures, the House is seeking in a tax proposal (PCB WMC 25-02) an amendment that would maintain the subsidy, but clarify its uses to ensure it benefits the industry and not just the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association.
It strikes the Association from existing statute, removing $5 million specifically directed to the Association. It maintains $5 million for Tampa Bay Downs, one of two thoroughbred horse racing tracks in the state, to be used “as purses in thoroughbred races” and for maintenance at the facility.
Likewise, the tax proposal maintains $15 million for Gulfstream Park, the other thoroughbred track, for purses and maintenance. It increases from $2.5 million to $7 million various funding efforts. That includes $6 million, up from $2 million, for the Gulfstream Park Racing Association for purses and purse supplements specifically for Florida-bred or Florida-sired horses.
The budget removes the requirement that they be registered with the breeders’ association. It also increases from $500,000 to $1.5 million funds for Tampa Bay Downs for purses and purse supplements for Florida-bred or sired horses.
Anderson referenced the tax proposal in his closing on the House bill Wednesday, noting that it makes the “process more efficient” and arguing it “puts more money in the hands of breeders and owners.”
He also pointed to amendments that both the House and the Senate have offered to decoupling legislation aimed at protecting the horse racing industry.
The Senate amendment added to its version, though stalled, provisions that would ensure a seven-year window for the horse industry to discuss and establish a plan to secure its future. It stipulates that race tracks must give at least four years’ notice before ending live horse racing, and that notice, under the bill, couldn’t be given until July 1, 2028, more than three years from now.
The amendment added to the House version is similar, offering a five-year guarantee for horse racing, including a three-year notice to the industry.
Some of those who voted against the bill Wednesday argued the original coupling was approved by voters in 2004 and that undoing it should again be put to a vote. But it’s worth noting that all other parimutuel facilities were decoupled from ancillary gambling activities under a 2021 law (SB 2A).
“My concern here is that we’re undoing things that were approved by voters and we’re not going back to those same voters and saying we’re changing the parameters and we want to make sure you’re OK with it,” said Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, a Parkland Democrat.
Rep. Felicia Robinson, another South Florida Democrat, also voted against the bill, offering similar points.
“It needs to go back to the people,” she said.
Still, the measure passed the committee 17-9.
But with the Senate version stalled, and continued opposition related to the decoupling measure, the effort may yet have an uphill climb — not just in clearing the full House, but also earning Senate approval where lawmakers seem less inclined to adopt it.
Despite ongoing challenges, the industry is not backing down.
The Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association offered a statement following the Senate’s postponentment and the House committee passage of decoupling measures, noting that the Senate’s move represented “thoughtful consideration of how decoupling would impac our beloved thoroughbred legacy,” but lamented the House continuing to move the issue forward, calling it “an assault on our industry, driven by foreign interests. That’s in reference to the Canada-based ownership team behind Gulfstream Park.
“The eleventh-hour amendment that sustains toxic decoupling language attempts to circumvent the potential absence of a Senate companion bill. The measure threatens to decimate Florida’s homegrown Thoroughbred industry — an industry that generates more than $3 billion annually and sustains tens of thousands of jobs across rural communities,” the group wrote in a statement.
“Decoupling would set an alarming precedent, ignoring the clear and passionate voices of Florida farmers, breeders, owners, and small businesses. The growing opposition to the legislation shows that our message resonates, and we’re not backing down.”
