SC equestrians call for Senate to pass bill legalizing horse race betting

COLUMBIA — Equestrians facing a dwindling industry are urging the Senate to get a bill allowing limited betting on horse races across the finish line in the last days of the session.

“Horses are vital,” Frank Collins, president of the Aiken Steeplechase Association, said Tuesday. “Maybe not to big cities, but to small towns, they’re vital.”

The House passed the bill last year in a vote of 54-44, but it stalled in the Senate, where a single senator can hold up a bill. In a state historically averse to legalizing gambling of any sort, the bill faces extremely long odds of becoming law this year, especially with just two days left in the session. Senators did not take up the bill Tuesday.

Lawmakers have opposed the bill over concerns that it would feed gambling addictions and could cause unintended consequences, such as what led to a decadelong fight with the video poker industry before its eventual ban through a court ruling in 2000. Legislators who were in the Statehouse as the industry fought efforts to rein it in are among the staunchest opponents of any gambling legislation.

Groups opposing the effort include the Palmetto Family Council, a faith-based lobbying group.

“While this legislation does not legalize all sports gambling, it opens the door to all forms of gambling in South Carolina,” the group’s position statement reads. That “will lead to an increase in gambling problems and addictions that will threaten the economic and cultural stability for Palmetto State families.”

The proposal would allow wagers on horse races through up to three state-licensed apps. Winners would split a pool of funding. The state would collect 10% of the profits and redistribute them to horse-related costs across the state through grants.

The state’s portion of the profits could total between $366,000 and $1.8 million per year, according to an estimate from the state budget department. The total amounts would depend on how much people wanted to wager.

A commission also created under the bill would decide where to put the money, after taking a cut of up to half for its own needs.

The money would not need to go back into racing. It could support equine therapy programs, public equestrian trails or training for inmates to learn how to groom horses, as a few examples, supporters said.

People are already illegally betting, but the state can’t capitalize on that money without first legalizing it, said Rep. Russell Ott, who sponsored the bill awaiting a Senate vote.

Equestrians “are getting crushed by other states right now that have gotten with the times, that have passed this type of legislation and have given their constituents and the citizens in their states the freedom to be able to do what so many people are already doing,” the St. Matthews Democrat said.

South Carolina was once a hub for horse training because of the year-round warm weather, but now stables sit empty as equestrians look elsewhere, said Jack Sadler, president of the South Carolina Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.

The Aiken Training Track, for instance, housed 300 horses in the winter of 1986. Last year, it had only around 100, Sadler said.

In many cases, horse owners decided to move to states that put profits from bets back into incentives for owners to keep their horses there for a certain portion of the year, said Deborah McCutchen, the association’s vice president.

The equine industry brought in nearly $2 billion and supported 29,000 jobs in 2019, according to a state-commissioned study that year. The longer South Carolina goes without legalizing betting, the more it will lose that money, she said.

“If we get the tools that we need, we won’t have as many empty stalls in South Carolina,” McCutchen said.

Allowing betting could also drive more tourism for races in South Carolina.

When Marsha Hewitt, a retired equine marketing specialist, used to staff booths for the Department of Agriculture at South Carolina races, people would often ask here where they could place bets.

On Sunday, the Kentucky Derby logged a record-breaking $210 million in bets, proving people are still interested in placing wagers on their favorite horses, Sadler said. That money could translate to South Carolina-specific races, such as The Carolina Cup or the biannual Aiken steeplechases, he said.

“Just think of how South Carolina could benefit from being able to wager legally over your phone or computer,” Sadler said.

Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, called on her fellow senators to pass the bill Wednesday to save equestrians’ business.

“This is an industry in South Carolina that will make a big difference,” said Shealy, main sponsor of the Senate’s companion bill. It promptly advanced through her committee to the Senate floor last year, then sat on the calendar with an objection until senators recommitted it last week.