posted 02-24-2004 02:16 PM                       

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(February 8, 2004) — FARMINGTON — The news of the dramatically increased purse structure at Finger Lakes Gaming and Racetrack had been public knowledge for only a few days, perhaps just hours, and already phones were ringing.

Buy horses, the owners were telling their trainers.

“I had one owner call and say, ‘Here’s $25,000, let’s you and me go get some horses,’” said M. Anthony Ferraro, one of the top trainers at Finger Lakes.

For the first time in ages, there is true excitement about the future of the area’s only thoroughbred track, and the anxiety and thrills are not being generated by photo finishes.

Instead, a one-time enemy of the racetrack, casino-style gaming, is being heralded as the savior of the Sport of Kings in New York.

Video lottery terminals start spinning for the first time at Finger Lakes on Feb. 18, and the 44-year-old track expects to live another generation thanks to the quarters and dollars spent with every push of a button on the virtual slot machines.

“Opening day will be a wonderful thing for the horsemen, thanks to the increased purses,” Paul Steckel, head of the Finger Lakes Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, said of the immediate 35 percent boost in the money paid out to horse owners every race.

The worst horses at the track will race for nearly $7,000, up from $5,100, during the 160-day season that opens April 16. The better horses will see purses rise from $16,000 to around $21,600. For the winning owner, that’s a check of $12,960 instead of $9,600.

“A lot of people want to get in the game,” said Jack Ryan, a longtime horse owner at Finger Lakes, “and people that got out want back in.”

Before legislation allowed the state’s racetracks to operate slot machine-style casinos, the future of Finger Lakes was bleak. There was a stampede of owners fleeing the stables, tired of thousands upon thousands of dollars in annual losses.

“We were losing a half-dozen to a dozen owners a year,” Steckel said, “and gaining maybe three to replace them.”

You do the math. Fewer owners meant fewer horses. Fewer horses meant small fields in races. Small fields meant unattractive wagering propositions. A modest return on wagers meant a decline in betting. A decline in betting at the mutuel windows meant the track could eventually lose money.

And Delaware North Cos., the owner of Finger Lakes, doesn’t tolerate red ink within its corporation.

“They get rid of things that don’t make money,” said Finger Lakes general manager Chris Riegle.

Thus, without the VLTs, the track just off Route 96 in Farmington might have been condominiums by the year 2010.

“For the short term we would have survived,” Riegle said. “For the medium term, no. I wouldn’t even say long-term because there would have been no long term. Sometime this year, and by ‘05 at the latest, we would have had a shortened season because we couldn’t have paid the purses.”

Now there’s the hope that people at the track — owners, trainers and handicappers alike — will need bigger purses to carry home their money.

If revenue from the 1,010 VLTs at Finger Lakes is strong, purses could increase 50 percent from the levels that they were at a year ago. In two years, they could double.

“This will encourage these guys to go out and get a little better horses, and more of them,” Riegle said.

It also may encourage owners and trainers from throughout the Northeast to ship their horses to Finger Lakes.

“We’ve gotten calls from across the country asking, ‘How do I get stalls?’” said Brad Lewis, recently hired as director of racing. “They want to get in now.”

Finger Lakes is prepared for renewed interest from other parts of the country. Of the 1,200 stalls on the backside, 900 will be allotted to existing Finger Lakes trainers; 300 will be for newcomers.

“There’s an axiom in racing that horses follow the money,” said Martin Kinsella, executive director of the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding & Development Fund. “I think the VLTs will do a lot to help Finger Lakes.”

The track, and the state for that matter, have dived into the VLT venture believing people will chase their money dreams by watching 7’s or diamonds or ducks spin round and round. Gov. George Pataki hopes to help solve budget problems with the state’s share of the profits; the state has budgeted $45 million in income from Finger Lakes alone this year.

The VLTs are in essence slot machines without the handle. There’s also one other big difference: Players aren’t competing against the machine. Instead, they are grouped together in a pool and play against a central system that determines payouts.

On average, 92 cents of every dollar wagered on VLTs at Finger Lakes will be returned in prizes. The biggest payout is $100,000.

Of the 8 cents skimmed from every wager, 71 percent goes to the state, 20.24 percent goes to Finger Lakes, the horsemen get 7.51 percent in the form of purse money, and the state breeding program receives 1.25 percent.

“Racinos,” as racetracks with slots are known, are new to New York but not the country. Slot machines at Mountaineer Park in Chester, W.Va., and Delaware Park in Wilmington, Del., not only saved racing, but also transformed it into a wildly successful venture for horsemen. At Dover Downs, a harness track in Delaware, purses ballooned from an average of $900 per race to nearly $10,000.

Purses at Mountaineer are double and triple what Finger Lakes offers, which is why some local trainers have made the five-hour commute to West Virginia every week to run their horses. They’d train them at Finger Lakes and then hit the road.

“We were becoming a partial training center for Mountaineer,” said Riegle, who bristled at the thought of the better horses at his track taking up stall space and racing elsewhere. “But how do you say they can’t do it? They have to make a living.”

Now many of those same horses can run at Finger Lakes for not quite the same money but with the convenience of not shipping out of state.

But while horsemen see VLTs as an answer to their prayers, not everyone hails their arrival.

“They’re definitely going to cause some problems because it’s just more temptation,” said Joyce Barrett, a peer counselor at Problem Gamblers Treatment Program of the Health Association in Rochester. “For some who have never gambled, they maybe just want to try it and they’re hooked. It happens so quickly.

“I’ve seen where people have lost their homes or their marriages because of gambling.”

Until now, to find slot-style gaming, people in Rochester faced a 90-minute or two-hour drive to Turning Stone Casino in Verona or one of the casinos on either side of Niagara Falls.

“Now you plan a half-hour trip,” Barrett said. “It’s too handy.”

The Rev. Duane Motley of Spencerport agrees.

“We’ll have a lot more problem gamblers, and that leads to work problems, marital problems, social problems,” Motley said. “It’s bad economic policy to fund a state government through gambling because gambling is very cyclic. And it always creates problems.

“There have been studies throughout the country that show for every dollar the state receives from gambling, it costs a minimum of $3 in social costs.”

Motley cited a study in Florida that indicated for every dollar gained by the state, $13 was spent on spinoff costs associated with gambling. “Law enforcement, the judicial system, crime, incarcerations, social services because of the increase in bankruptcies, help to cover families that have lost their wealth,” he said, adding:

“That’s why we’re opposed to it from a moral and social standpoint.”

Motley and his organization, New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, oppose the racinos because he says they violate the state constitution.

“They’re not put there for the benefit of education, they’re being put there for the benefit of the track,” Motley said. “The constitution also says there is to be no commercialized gambling, and this is.”

His group has filed suit to stop the VLTs from spinning. With appeals, it could be years before anything is decided.

In the meantime, folks at Finger Lakes and the surrounding area will reap the benefits.

“If it’s anything like the horse business used to be, we’re hoping it will generate a whole different clientele,” said Jay Daniels, banquet coordinator at DiPacifics, a restaurant and bar at routes 96 and 332, just a quarter-mile from the track.

“The racing clientele we had was an older crowd. There’s not as many around. We’re hoping this will generate a younger clientele.”

The track itself has similar goals. The dream would be for VLT players to wander upstairs and enjoy the races.

“Horse racing has been on the decline for years, but now maybe people will drive out to Finger Lakes to play the machines and say, ‘This is a pretty cool spot’ and come back for a day at the races,” Kinsella said. “We hope VLTs will spark interest in horse racing.”

Horse players have the same dreams.

“I used to go to the track all the time but I’ve lost some interest in Finger Lakes,” said David White of Rochester. “It used to be a lot more entertaining, there was a better quality of horses and the track seemed a lot cleaner. It’s been fading away.

“I think the machines will be a big benefit.”

For patrons that go to play the slots, horse racing will be one of the perks. Unlike Turning Stone, which has golf courses, a convention center and plans for a 19-story luxury hotel, amenities at Finger Lakes will be limited.

“We’ll have a good, first-class room with great food offerings and a great sports bar, but you’ll never see the golf courses or the hotels because our cut (from VLT revenue) isn’t big enough,” Riegle said.

Riegle says he can still entice customers to come out and play games they know from Atlantic City and Las Vegas casinos, such as Red, White and Blue, Blazing 7’s, Double Diamond and Lobster Mania.

“We’re a food and beverage company primarily, so we’re good at food,” said Riegle, whose parent company, Delaware North, opened the state’s first racino at Saratoga Raceway on Jan. 27. “Food and drink are critical to the atmosphere.”

Riegle has one big fear about the VLTs: that Pataki has gone too far in proposing up to eight new VLT casinos. When VLTs were first approved two years ago, they were meant for racetracks only. Some business leaders in Rochester favor a downtown casino, which would create intense competition for Finger Lakes.

“We worked with the state Legislature for 2½ years to get this project going and we think it’s bad policy to expand the market before we see how these do,” Riegle said.

For now, Finger Lakes has exclusivity in the region. Batavia Downs plans to open its racino later this year. But there’s nothing between Turning Stone and Seneca Niagara Casino on the United States’ side of Niagara Falls.

Let the games begin.

KEVINO@DemocratandChronicle.com

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posted 02-24-2004 02:18 PM                       

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Bobby Hendiggidy wrote:
As for me, I have no tattoos or piercings.

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posted 02-24-2004 04:12 PM                 

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As for me, I have no tattoos or piercings.

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posted 02-26-2004 03:10 PM                 

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...sex toys. Also they can't be TOO realistic.

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...its illegal to own more than 6 (I belive) Adult Novelties...

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posted 02-26-2004 08:01 PM                 

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Nevada--where men are men, and sheep are nervous!

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What? I thought that was Texas... No wait! That's where there are steers and there are q....s

Tim: I'm pissed at you! You got out this way and didn't let me know so we could visit! What an ass!

>>> Phil