Michigan Racinos Looking Good

Michigan voters have been fairly clear about their opinion of slots in the state. However, state lawmakers may have found a way for residents to start seeing it their way – they are interested in bringing in slots and not raising taxes – who can’t agree to that?

They are considering proposing that if residents allow the slots to come in, they will give them a significant tax decrease. They are thinking that if they give voters a choice between raising taxes or adding slots to the state, that voters will overwhelmingly choose the slots. They say that they don’t want to raise taxes, but without another revenue source, they have to do something.

The horse racing lobby has been pushing for the slots for some time now, as they say that they are dying without them. They say that in addition to the fact that they cannot compete with the other tracks that already have slots – they are just not pulling in the numbers that they used to without being able to raise purse amounts. They continue with the fact that they can’t raise purse amounts without slots, so the cycle continues.

When asked if they would rather see slots or an income tax raise, 75% of residents said that they would legalize slots. However, there are many who are still against the slots so people are afraid to bring it up for fear that if people choose to vote against the slots it will be a black mark on their political record. Also fighting the slots are the Detroit Casinos and the tribal casinos as they don’t want competition from anyone else.



Back to September 2007 Archive.