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There are still questions surrounding the why Churchill Downs has requested that the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission allow them to reduce their spring meet live racing format from five days to four.  Track operators have insisted the cut backs are a reaction to the recession and the shrinking horse racing industry.  While that may be partially true, there are some that suspect the cuts may be a sign of how important online gambling has really become to track operators.

The reason why Governor Steve Beshear is still tied up in the controversial domain name case where he is attempting to seize the domain name of 141 online casinos is because he is trying desperately to protect the jobs and the revenues enjoyed by the state courtesy of live racing.

The domain name case is not an effort to push all online gambling out of the state, just the online casinos that compete with Kentucky’s online gambling ventures.  Bob Evans, the chief executive officer of Churchill Downs acknowledges that the tracks Internet gambling department continues to draw in new revenue.  For that reason, in the future Churchill Downs will spend an increasing amount of focus on online gambling “because the growth rates of these new businesses are higher than [those in] racing.”

Focus on the expansion of their online gambling affairs is all a part of the track restructuring their revenue plans; plans that also include cutting races out of their spring meet and hopefully legislation to operate slot machines in the near future.

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