It appears that state subsidies for greyhound racing at racetrack casinos in Nitro and Wheeling will continue for another year, after the House Finance Committee halted consideration Tuesday of a bill to "decouple" racing at the tracks (SB 641).
Finance Committee Chairman Eric Nelson, R-Kanawha, announced Tuesday that the bill would become a study resolution for the coming year.
"It did not have bipartisan support," he said afterward.
He said there were inherent issues with the bill that could not be resolved with the short time remaining in the 2016 regular session, which ends at midnight Saturday.
Nelson said there were concerns about raising the percentage of voters needed to petition the racetrack casinos' host counties in order to have referenda to recall the casinos' video lottery and table games licenses, as well as misunderstandings about provisions to decouple greyhound racing at the tracks.
Under current law, the racetrack casinos must have racing licenses and conduct a proscribed number of live racing days in order to retain video lottery and table games licenses. The Senate bill would "decouple" that requirement, eliminating the need to have a racing license.
A similar bill passed by the House (HB 4625) would simply move the estimated $22 million of state Lottery profits slated to subsidize greyhound purses and breeders' funds to the state Road Fund, but would not decouple racing at the two tracks.
That raised concerns from casino management - including Mardi Gras' Dan Adkins - that the casinos could be forced to continue greyhound racing, subsidized from casino revenues, likely requiring layoffs and cutback in casino amenities.
That bill has been sitting in Senate Finance Committee for a week, and is not expected to be taken up by the committee.
The Senate bill would allow the Legislature to appropriate the revenue freed up by eliminating the racing subsidies.
Both bills were prompted by a 2015 study commissioned by the Legislature by Spectrum Gaming Group, which found that attendance and wagering on greyhound racing at the two tracks has dropped off precipitously since the 1990s.
It found that with little live wagering, the Lottery subsidies account for 95 percent of greyhound purses - purses that have declined to the point that many kennels are struggling to break even.
Reach Phil Kabler at philk@wvgazettemail.com, "304 348-1220, or follow @PhilKabler on Twitter.