Gulfstream sues state over decoupling

Gulfstream Park in Florida has filed a lawsuit asking a state district court to invalidate a requirement that the track hold a live race meet to operate slot machines, the latest salvo in the track’s effort to decouple its racing license from its casino license.

The lawsuit, which names the Florida Gaming Control Commission as the defendant, contends that a law passed in 2021 that allowed seven other parimutuel operators to operate slot machines without running live races or hosting jai alai matches is unconstitutional because the law did not exempt all parimutuel licensees from the same requirement.

The 2021 law did not include Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay Downs.

The law asks the court to declare the 2021 law unconstitutional for providing “a grant of privilege to a private corporation” and requests a permanent injunction that would block the gambling commission from enforcing the live racing requirements.

Gulfstream Park, which is owned by 1/ST Racing and Gaming, backed an effort this year to decouple its racing and casino licenses, but the law died after Gov. Ron DeSantis indicated that he would not support the bill. The effort galvanized opposition from both state and national horsemen’s and breeders’ organizations.

Lonny Powell, chief executive of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association, which mobilized its members to speak at committee hearings earlier this year in opposition to the legislation, called the filing of the lawsuit “deeply troubling” in a statement.

“The 2021 decoupling law was designed to preserve Florida’s core horse racing institutions,” Powell said. “Gulfstream Park’s attempt to overturn it would open the floodgates, eroding Thoroughbred racing statewide, threatening family farms, rural jobs, and a multibillion-dollar agricultural industry.”

Many of the dual-license facilities named in the 2021 law were greyhound tracks whose operations were shuttered after a state vote in 2018 outlawed greyhound racing.

Parimutuel facilities in Florida were first granted the ability to operate slot machines through a ballot initiative passed in 2005. The ballot question specifically tied the operation of the machines to parimutuel licenses.

In a statement, an attorney for 1/ST Racing and Gaming, Marie Long, said that the company was “committed to a sustainable future for racing” and that the suit was about “fairness.”

“It’s about our inability to compete with the private slots operators who don’t have to meet the same obligations we must meet to run our business because they receive special treatment at our expense,” Long said.

During the legislative effort, Gulfstream Park officials said that they were not seeking decoupling in order to cease live racing in the state, and they supported provisions in the legislation introduced earlier this year that would have guaranteed live racing at Gulfstream for five to seven years.

However, Gulfstream sits on extremely valuable land in Hallandale Beach, Fla., and officials at 1/ST have told horsemen that they have begun exploring a redevelopment of the property and the possible relocation of live racing to another area in the state.

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