Greyhound & horse racing: bad bets to last much longer

Only massive subsidies keep any form of animal racing lucrative 

            CAERPHILLY,  Wales;  LITTLE ROCK,  Arkansas;  PLEASANTON,  California;  SARATOGA,  New York––Greyhound racing is to end in Wales perhaps as soon as May 2026,  and is now banned in Arkansas,  where the last remaining track,  in West Memphis,  closed in 2022.

Horse racing ended in northern California with the February 2025 failure of a racing schedule at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton,  meant to replace the much more ambitious schedule offered for 83 years at Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley.

Horse racing would likely end in New York state,  as well,  but for what Wired contributing editor Noah Shachtman calls “a bizarre inverted pyramid of vice:  The state is using one particularly corrosive form of gambling [casinos] to keep another marginalized form [horse racing] alive.”

Between humane opposition and waning bettor interest,  animal racing of any sort appears to be stumbling to a finish.

Throwing away money

Gamblers are throwing away more money than ever on cards,  craps,  roulette,  slot machines,  and lotteries,  but betting on animals is distinctly out of style,  whether because animal races are perceived as more easily fixed,  are more costly to stage,  or in the case of horse racing in particular,  no longer of interest to generations raised where horses are no longer a familiar presence.

“Greyhound racing will disappear in Wales,”  reported Will Humphries for The Times of London on March 28 2025,  after the Welsh Labour Party passed a budget bill 29-28 by winning an abstention from Jane Dodds with a pledge to pass a proposed greyhound racing ban.

“I think it’s great”

Dodds,  the lone Liberal Democratic member of the Welsh Parliament,  “dedicated the ban to Arthur,  her late greyhound,  who she claims was ‘traumatized’ by his time racing,”  Humphries wrote.

“I think it’s great,”  Dodds told Humphries,  “that I live in a country in which ordinary people and charities can see that something is cruel,  take a stand against that cruelty,  and then work with politicians from across the political spectrum to deliver the change they want.

“Huw Irranca-Davies,  the deputy first minister,”  Humphries specified,  “said he wanted the [greyhound racing] ban to ‘come into force as soon as practicably possible,’  which could mean legislation coming before the next Welsh parliamentary election in May 2026.”

“The Cut to the Chase Coalition”

Applauding the likelihood of Wales passing greyhound racing ban,  Humphries said,  was “the Cut the Chase coalition,  which includes the Royal SPCA,  Dogs Trust,  and Greyhound Rescue Wales,  who said England,  Scotland,  and Northern Ireland should follow suit.”

In England,  Labour Party culture minister Lisa Nandy “told the House of Commons there are ‘absolutely no plans’ to extend a greyhound racing ban to the rest of the U.K.,”  Humphries  mentioned,  “because ‘we appreciate the joy that it brings to many,  many people in our country and the economic contribution that it makes.”

Casualties

The British greyhound industry argues that the 109 dogs who died racing at the 20 U.K. racetracks in 2023 were half as many as died in 2018,  when new safety rules came into effect,  but not clear is whether the same number of greyhound races involving the same approximate number of dogs were run in 2023.

Also unclear is how the number of dogs used in racing compares to the number of horses.

The greyhound industry contends further that the British government would have to pay track owners and trainers “upwards of £20 million” in compensation for a shutdown,  or about four times more than was the cost of buying out the last 10 British mink farmers in 2003.

Arkansas bans greyhound racing & simulcasting

The U.S. organization Grey2K USA meanwhile pronounced itself “thrilled to report that Arkansas has now become the 44th American state to outlaw dog racing” with a bill,  HB 1721,  which “prohibits both live racing and simulcast wagering on dogs,”  effective by 2028.

“Greyhound simulcasting has been outlawed in the six states of Arizona,  Arkansas,  Colorado,  Kansas,  Massachusetts, and New Hampshire since 2022,”   Grey2K USA said.

Will current Congress take an interest?

“Bills to end betting on greyhound racing are pending in North Dakota,  Oregon, and Texas.

House Bill 1721 also phases out remote gambling on dog races, known as simulcasting, by 2028.

Greyhound racing continues in the U.S. only at two tracks in West Virginia.

“A bill to prohibit gambling on greyhound racing nationwide was introduced in the 118th Congress,”  Grey2K said,  “and earned the support of 80 cosponsors and more than 250 humane groups,  anti-gambling organizations,  and local animal shelters,”  but unclear as yet is whether any of that momentum will carry over into the 119th Congress.

All 2025 horse racing canceled in Norcal

The California Authority of Racing Fairs canceled “all 2025 horse racing in Northern California,”  reported J.R. Stone for KGO on February 25,  2025.

“Initially,  there was a belief that racing would go on until June,”  Stone reported,  “but after lackluster, lower-than-expected wagering last year, the decision was made.  Wagering dollars during that time were 50% lower than expected,  according to officials.”

Asked Shachtman in a February 28,  2025 op-ed column for The New York Times,  “Dead athletes.  Empty stands.  Why are we paying billions to keep this sport alive?

“It’s a lonely time to be a racing fan,”  Schachtman wrote.  “For those who own the horses,
though,  things aren’t so bad. Payouts for winners — the purses — are tremendous.

“A strange & very lucrative arrangement”

“If that doesn’t seem to add up,”  Schachtman explained,  “blame a strange and very lucrative
arrangement crafted by interests in the horse racing industry.

“Back in 2001,  when New York State agreed to hand out new licenses to operate slot machines, the racing crowd won an agreement that a chunk of the proceeds would go to them.”

Today,  Schachtman said,  “The difference between the torrent of money coming from casinos and the relatively paltry trickle coming from horse racing bets has warped the sport’s priorities to such a degree that racing can resemble at its worst moments a shell industry — a desiccated husk of a pastime,”  existing only to rationalize the existence of casinos.

“It’s true that football and basketball teams get tax incentives,”  Schachtman observed,  “but
sports like those have hundreds of millions of fans. The audience for horse racing — except for high-profile events like the Kentucky Derby,  which is booming — has plummeted,  even as the rise of online gambling  has made it easier than ever to place a bet.

“Another key distinction:  Those other sports don’t routinely kill their athletes,”  Schachtman said,  whereas “The anti-racing advocacy organization Horseracing Wrongs has shown that 11,000 horses have been put to death at American racetracks since 2014.”

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