A little more than a year after St. Tammany Parish voters shot down a $325 million casino proposal, Slidell officials are waging a lower-profile fight against a form of gambling that has never appeared on a parish ballot: historical horse racing machines.
The state Legislature adopted a bill in 2021 that allows up to 50 of the machines at off-track betting parlors, like the one just off Interstate 10 and Gause Boulevard in Slidell. Drawing from a database of previous horse races, the electronic devices allow players to see the odds for each horse, but names and the date and place of the races are not provided.
Critics say that most players simply let the machine choose a horse for them, and Slidell officials liken the machines to video poker or slots, which are not legal in St. Tammany Parish.
"We don't want historical horse racing in the city limits," said Slidell Mayor Greg Cromer, who says it's different from the pari-muteul wagering that's done on live horse races because it doesn't involve any skill or science.
'Glorified slot machine'
"It looks like it's nothing more than a glorified slot machine," Cromer said. "You push in the money and push the button. That's how it looks to the mayor. The (Louisiana) Racing Commission may argue it's different."
But it's not clear what, if anything, Slidell officials can do about it. Churchill Downs, owners of the OTB located at a former Ruby Tuesdays, applied for a permit to do interior construction work some months ago, but the city has not yet approved the plans, Cromer said.
Slidell is also negotiating a contract with attorney Tom Thornhill to represent the city. "We were told to expect a lawsuit," Council member at large Bill Borchert said.
Cromer said that the city isn't fighting the OTB. "I don't think we have a leg to stand on," he said of off-track betting. "But with historical horse racing, I think we do."
Officials with Churchill Downs in Kentucky and the New Orleans Fairgrounds, which operates the Slidell OTB as well as one near Covington, did not return several calls for comment.
Caught off guard
Legislation to allow historical horse racing machines was adopted at the end of the 2021 session, with supporters arguing that it would help the horse racing industry in Louisiana afloat by creating bigger purses. But Slidell officials were caught off guard by what they see as a stealth move to expand gambling in a parish that has soundly rejected it.
"It's been percolating for a while," Cromer said. "I don't remember how we found out about the legislative change."
St. Tammany Parish Council member Jake Airey's district includes both the OTB and the Slidell area site of the casino that voters turned down in late 2021. He says constituents express surprise when they learn that slot-type machines are coming to town. "They ask, 'Didn't we just do this?'"
Voters did, indeed, just face a referendum on casino gambling, dealing a crushing 63% no vote to developer Penninsula Pacific Entertainment, or P2E, which had spent nearly a year trying to woo St. Tammany voters to allow it to build a new casino near the I-10 twin span bridges.
Members of the public listen from the hallway at a public meeting of the Slidell City Council during public comments related to a proposed casino in Slidell, La. Tuesday, April 27, 2021. (Photo by Max Becherer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
Since then, P2E has sold many of its asset to Churchill Downs, although it still owns the land it bought near Slidell for the failed Camellia Bay.
Not first OTB worry
The advent of historical horse racing isn't the first time that the Slidell OTB has caused concerns. P2E had agreed to build a $35 million sports complex in eastern St. Tammany if voters approved the casino, but that deal had a seven-year, non-compete clause.
"The OTB opened up before the vote," Borchert said. City officials fretted that the casino would use the OTB as a reason to back out and sent St. Tammany Corporation's Chris Masingill back to the negotiating table.
But the sports complex and other incentives vanished when the casino was voted down.
A 1987 vote
Leading up to that election, casino advocates had pointed to favorable votes on sports gaming in St. Tammany Parish as a sign that anti-gambling sentiment had faded in the conservative parish.
St. Tammany had rejected both video poker and riverboats in 1996, when referendums were held in every parish. But it was a vote taken much earlier, in 1987, that's in play now. St. Tammany Parish voters narrowly approved off-track betting parlors in November of that year -- 50.2% to 49.7%.
A year later, the Associated Press reported that St. Tammany officials who expected about $300,000 in tax revenue from its two OTBs instead saw $500,000 to $600,000.
But historical horse racing machines won't bring a similar bounty. Senate Bill 209, sponsored by Sen. Gary Smith, D-Norco, provides no revenue to the state or local governments.
Gene Mills, president of the Louisiana Family Forum, who spoke against the measure during the 2021 session, called it a lose-lose proposition for St. Tammany, because no taxation was provided on the new machines.
Airey said that provision had struck him as a "poison pill" that might have derailed the bill, but he thinks it passed under the radar as the session came to a close.
"It's a shame it snuck in like that, " he said.
Borchert agreed.
"If we're not going to allow local restaurants to have video poker, why would we approve something we don't get anything out of....people voted all these things out," he said.
"It seems as though the state has decided we don’t care what local people think, we'll allow it anywhere."
