Op-Ed: Tax Dollars Are Funding a Deadly, Dying Sport

Why are governments funding a sport that gives little back while causing harm to its workers and athletes? That is a question posed by journalist Noah Shachtman in a nearly 4,500-word guest essay at the New York Times, calling for an end to public funding of horse racing. Maryland alone spends $91 million a year in slot machine revenue to prop up the sport, while Pennsylvania has funneled $3.5 billion into its racehorse development fund over the past 20 years, Shachtman notes. That might've made sense at one time, when horse racing generated millions in tax revenues for states. But it's now a dying business, Shachtman writes. Horses are dying, too.

Some 11,000 horses have been put to death at US racetracks in the last decade. "Hundreds and hundreds of thoroughbreds still perish each year," Shachtman reports. Industry workers, many brought in seasonally from Latin America, also suffer, working "seven days a week for minimum wage (when they get it)" and traveling in trailers with the horses, who they argue are treated much better than themselves. "When the sport was at its peak, the toll it took on horses and workers was measured against the joy it gave millions of fans and the billions it put into states' coffers," Shachtman notes. But even with the rise of online betting, horse racing audiences have plummeted, he writes.

Ultimately, "it makes less sense than ever for the public to be coddling this sport," he concludes. So "just stop. Let the sport stand on its own and dwindle to whatever size its fan base supports." In response, the United States Trotting Association labeled the article "a hit piece" following the Times' "usual playbook of distortions, half-truths, and omissions when it comes to the industry." The group added, "in the United States, horse racing contributes $36.4 billion annually and supports 491,000 jobs across agriculture, tourism, and veterinary services. In New York, alone, horse racing generates over $3 billion in economic activity." Read Shachtman's full piece here. (More horse racing stories.)