Brent Batten: Dog track's survival no sure bet

At the Naples-Fort Myers Greyhound Track, you can place a “box” bet that covers all the permutations of the numbers in a box. For instance, an exacta box with two numbers, commonly called a quinella, is a bet on either of two permutations: A first and B second, or B first and A second. A trifecta box with three numbers has six possible permutations and a trifecta box with five numbers has 60 possible permutations.

Then there’s the “key” bet which involves making a multiple wager with a single dog in one race bet in one position with all possible combinations of other selected dogs in a single race. And the “wheel” bet consisting of betting all dogs in one race in a bet involving two or more races. For example, a 1-all daily double wheel bets the 1-dog in the first race with every dog in the second.

Confusing? Of course, but it’s still clearer than the status of gaming in the state and perhaps the future of the dog track itself as the Florida Legislature reaches the halfway point of its annual session.

More: Florida gambling bills with billions at stake are likely to come down to session wire

On Wednesday, the House was set to vote on its version of gaming legislation.

The Senate has already approved its own bill, one separated from the House version by several lengths.

And coming up strong on the outside is the Florida Supreme Court, which still hasn’t ruled on a pivotal case it heard in June, the results of which could bump the entire issue off track.

Izzy Havenick, vice president of the track in Bonita Springs and a scion of the family that also owns the Magic City Casino in Miami, is in Tallahassee this week monitoring the goings-on.

He’s hoping some sort of compromise can be worked out between the House and Senate that will allow what he and other track owners in the state covet most: slot machines to go along with the racing and poker games they already offer.

Without slots, Havenick says, the Bonita track can’t stay in business indefinitely. Interest is in racing is waning, and card rooms don’t do enough to compete against the tribal casinos, such as the Seminole Casino in Immokalee, that have poker, blackjack and slot machines.

Reducing the required number of races and allowing the tracks to offer new products are keys to the track’s survival, according to Havenick.

“We’ll hold on as long as we can. I wouldn’t say it’s a one- or two-year thing, but you can only hold on so long,” he said.

“Thankfully, in the Senate bill, it has slots at Naples, so that’s a good thing,” Havenick said. “The House bill basically does nothing for anyone.”

Even the sponsor of the House bill, Rep. Mike La Rosa, of St. Cloud, describes it as a status quo measure. The primary beneficiary would be the Seminole Tribe operating casinos under a now expired compact with the state.

Assuming the House bill passes, House and Senate leaders would meet in a conference committee to attempt to work out a compromise both sides can live with.

“Maybe a miracle will happen and the House and Senate can agree on something,” Havenick said.

The 2010 compact gave the Seminoles “exclusivity” in operating casinos with popular features such as slots and blackjack. In exchange, the tribe agreed to pay the state more than $1 billion over five years.

A revised compact agreed to by Gov. Rick Scott and the tribe in 2015 hasn’t been ratified by the Legislature, and the state is losing out on hundreds of millions of dollars a year in potential revenue. The state’s estimated haul from the revised compact was $3 billion over 20 years.

Resistance to any expansion of gambling in the state is one reason for the impasse. The reluctance of the tribe to give up exclusivity and accept slots at nontribal facilities is another.

Another might be the uncertainty around the Supreme Court. Parties may be unwilling to commit to a course of action until the court rules on a dispute between a North Florida track and the state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

In 2009, the Legislature passed a law that further muddied the already murky gambling picture.

The law allowed counties to vote on whether to legalize slot machines at pari-mutuel facilities such as dog tracks, horse tracks and jai alai frontons.

Lee County voters did just that, approving slots at the Bonita Springs track in 2012.

But the state objected when Gretna Racing applied to add slots. The DBPR is arguing that the wording of the law also requires specific permission from the Legislature on top of the local referendum before slot machines can be added.

That’s the question the Supreme Court has been mulling since June.

So, regardless of how the House and Senate move forward, betting on any particular outcome before the Supreme Court makes its position known would probably be a losing proposition.

“I believe the entire world is waiting on the Supreme Court,” Havenick said.

 Connect with Brent Batten at brent.batten@naplesnews.com, on Twitter@NDN_BrentBatten and at facebook.com/ndnbrentbatten.