Daytime Simulcasting Big Hit at Gulfstream Park Racing and Casino
Off-season, daytime simulcasting made its debut at Gulfstream Park Racing & Casino Saturday and a sizable crowd turned out to watch and wager on races from the nation’s top racetracks.
Simulcasting at Gulfstream Park is based in the 500-seat Silks Simulcasting Center on the northside of the first floor, adjacent to the Breezeway Bar and the track’s beautiful paddock. The room features comfortable seating with worktables, or carrels, as well as a bar, concessions, mutuel clerks and self-service machines. There are 60 High-Definition TVs hung on the walls and about 150 seats are equipped with individual, smaller-version plasmas.
Saturday was the first day the sport’s local fans could make an afternoon bet at Gulfstream Park since the track’s 2007 live meet concluded April 22. A statute that prohibited Gulfstream Park from hosting and accepting wagers in the afternoon was struck down in a unanimous decision by the State Supreme Court Sept. 20.
There were an estimated 400 on hand at Gulfstream Park playing the races Saturday.
Sam Gordon, President of the Florida HBPA, called the Supreme Court’s opinion “critically important and certainly welcomed news to horsemen throughout the state. Help like this from the judicial side of government gives me hope that we can get some help from the legislative and executive branches in the form of tax-relief on pari-mutuel facilities with slot machines. A 50% tax rate is far too much, an unfair economic imposition.”
Bill Murphy, President and General Manager of Gulfstream Park, said, “This is a win-win situation for all involved parties. It’s a business we can grow, so that will help both us and our friends at Calder. The fans have a wider choice of where they can go to enjoy the sport; more people will be employed; the horsemen who put on the show and the breeders in Ocala will benefit in the way of increased purses, and the state will benefit in the form of more tax dollars.”
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