Indiana Horse Racing and Breeding Coalition
www.hoosiersforhorses.org
Indianapolis Star
April 15, 2005
To: Dennis Ryerson, Editor and Vice President
I read with interest the Star's Weekend "Give It Your Best Slot" story today. More accurately, I read the story with interest, disappointment and amazement.
Given your paper's ongoing editorial blinders when it comes to gaming (and slots at the horse tracks, in particular), I find your special sections devoted to riverboat gambling, your ads promoting shows and entertainment at the riverboats and this unbridled, gushing story about slots at the boats particularly hypocritical.
For starters, I have never seen any Star story about the horse racing industry in Indiana without references to those few in Indiana who have experienced problem gambling or quotes from people who oppose gambling. This story didn't even include a passing reference to the state's gambling addiction hotline.
Second, though my memory is limited, I cannot recall any story on the Indiana horse racing industry that included "how-tos" and helpful hints from the writer, though it would be a great idea for a future story, and such friendly treatment would certainly help our struggling industry.
With breeders, owners and/or trainers in all 92 counties, the Indiana horse racing industry has its agribusiness roots deep in the soil of Indiana. It is also an industry that is likely to fail — taking with it millions of dollars of local commercial and economic activity — without the ability to update the entertainment products it offers at the racetracks that are its commercial showcases.
For several years, the tracks have been working to educate legislators and the public about the need to put alternative gaming — pull tab or slot machines — at the horse tracks as a means of keeping the industry competitive with the regional and national markets in which they do business.
At the same time, Hoosier horsemen and the local businesses dependent on the horse industry have been promoting the issue to the same audiences as a means of shoring up the racing purse structures and saving the industry and its statewide economic activity.
You celebrate other industries' efforts to remain competitive. You spotlight and promote riverboats' entertainment products. But you editorialize against the same products at the horse tracks and condemn what you call an expansion of gambling.
The Indiana horse racing industry generates an annual economic effect of more than $479 million and nearly 7,000 jobs all over the state. Adding an additional gaming product at the state's two horse tracks would save and grow that economic activity and those important jobs, while generating roughly $180 million in much-needed tax revenue for the state at a time when the state is trimming vital services for lack of money.
You get to choose what goes into your paper and its editorial and public policy philosophies. You say you strive to be fair. You say you strive to be accurate. How about adding "consistency" to your goals? Give it your best shot.
Jerry Walker, Chair
Indiana Horse Racing & Breeding Coalition