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Originally Posted by Jeff P
That's absolute nonsense.
In the case of Yavapai, HANA attended meetings with leadership from Yavapai track management, the AZ HBPA, and the AZ Dept of Racing.
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I can confirm this fact as well as BillW's characterizations of the problem facing AZ racing regarding the ADW legislation being self-imposed.
The ADW law was indeed coercive, its main intent was to demand horseplayers into the OTB network, owned by Turf Paradise. It was sold to horsemen as a combative measure to head off the "ADW leeches" that were contributing a minute fraction from wagers to the purse fund compared to on-track and in-state off-track locations.
This certainly was not entirely untrue, however, as time has passed and it appears that a large volume contributing a little per capita would be preferable to a tiny volume contributing a little more per capita, Turf Paradise has remained content with the status quo.
It was indeed the efforts of former management at Yavapai in concert with Jeff Platt and others at HANA that actually moved towards changing the law or at least interpreting its intent in such a way that conduct that benefitted the industry at large (not necessarily one entity within) would be permitted.
As a side note, the bankruptcy of Yavapai Downs had little to do with the actual racing product, in my opinion - an opinion shared by many, many others. From the inception, they built the shit dangerously close to the fan and it just took a little sway for the two to collide.
