New Yorkers! Horseracing Wrongs needs YOU to contact your Assemblymember and Senator and urge them to co-sponsor legislation to End Horseracing Subsidies now!
Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal and Senator Robert Jackson have introduced a bill (A1162 and S5438) that would redirect the $230 million a year in corporate welfare currently being gifted to this cruel, deadly industry.
What you need to know about Horseracing Subsidies:
Since 2004, the New York State racing industry has been subsidized by revenue from casino gaming – subsidization that now exceeds $230 million per year. These payments were initially intended to give failing horseracing an opportunity to become self-sufficient. 19 years and $3 billion later, and neither goal has been, or will be, met.
So where exactly does this $230 million come from?
Put simply, the $230M is money wagered in slot machines located at racetracks. If that same $230M were wagered at an independent casino, like Rivers in Schenectady, all that money would go back to the state for education. Instead, it’s being used to prop up purses and fatten breeder incentives. In short, even as demand for their product continues to plummet, the racing people are laughing all the way to bank.
Triple wrong! This massive taxpayer bailout:
1. Is an affront to our free-market system: The vast majority of NY businesses receive no government handouts, surviving, as they should, on their goods and services alone.
2. Cheats schoolchildren out of tens of millions of desperately-needed education dollars every year.
3. Allows for the continued abuse and killing of intelligent, sensitive, beautiful animals (NY averages over 100 racehorse deaths per year).
JOIN US TO TAKE ACTION! This is a Pivotal Moment!