Well it looks like the Kansas legislature has really messed up their chances for slots at the tracks in Kansas.
It's really sad. The kennels were counting on the support. We not only have lost Wichita, but it looks like Camptown is finished. The Grace family has stopped work at the Woodlands and there is a real chance they may turn down the slots for good.
The state wanted the track owners to pay for the slot machines and then give them to the state, plus be taxed at 40% on top of all that.
We may never see slots at the tracks in Kansas and this could be the death sentence of greyhound racing in Kansas. Most of the kennels at the Woodlands are just barely hanging on.

Aw, man... That is too bad.

Yea , and to make matters worse around here Mile High is scheduled to close on the 28th.
Now another 4 or 500 dogs are going to flood adoption and the remaining tracks.
Word is the kennel owners tried to negotiate with management on a reduction in the point payout to help things and they were flat turned down. Management told the trainers they have 2 days to get all the dogs out!
Man this really stinks!

That really bites. What the heck are these people thinking?

Heavy taxes may spell doom for The Woodlands
By RICK ALM
The Kansas City Star

Kansas City Star file photo
At The Woodlands, track operators and state officials still haven’t come to contract terms on the remaining 15 percent of the gross slot revenues.


As Daniel Webster eloquently advised Chief Justice John Marshall in 1819: “An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy.”
The Kansas Legislature and state gambling regulators appear to be forgetting that in allowing but heavily taxing slot machines at racetracks.
As a result, don’t be surprised if The Woodlands never has slots, which could spell the end for the state’s last surviving pari-mutuel racetrack.
After months of talks, track operators and state officials still haven’t come to contract terms on a division of the spoils at a Woodlands Race Park racino, and it’s starting to look as if they may never.
Two months ago, Wichita businessman Phil Ruffin Sr. walked away from similar negotiations for his long-shuttered Camptown dog track in Frontenac.
At the time, Ruffin said the state’s massive tax bite on racetrack slots didn’t leave enough cash flow to turn a fair profit.
Ruffin earlier closed his Wichita track after Sedgwick County voters rejected gambling there.
Now it may be The Woodlands’ turn.
“We’re still talking … and trying to make sure what we’re going to do is economically viable,” said Bruce Schmitter, vice president of Kansas Racing LLC, which owns the dog- and horse-racing track in Kansas City, Kan.
Here’s the problem: Lawmakers last year carved out 40 percent of gross slot revenues for the state treasury in the form of a gambling tax.
Lawmakers then set aside an additional 14 percent of the gross to supplement purses for horse and dog racing, to help revive the long-dying spectator sport of pari-mutuel racing.
Also coming off the top of slot gross at Kansas tracks is 3 percent for the local host government, 2 percent for a state problem gambling fund and 1 percent for a state horse fair benefit fund. All of that adds up to a whopping 60 percent of gross. But that’s not all.
The law gives these “state-owned” slot parlor management companies just 25 percent to build the place, meet the payroll, pay the light bill and buy the slots and everything else that’s needed — from swizzle sticks to the carpeting on the floor.
The remaining 15 percent of gross is set aside for unspecified “gaming expenses” to be divided by contractual agreement between the state and its slot manager.
Divvying up that remaining 15 percent is what The Woodlands and the state are still arguing about.
“Hopefully something will be worked out that makes it viable for both of us,” Schmitter said.
Viable for both? The state already is pocketing 60 percent for doing little more than passing a law that legalized gambling and setting up the bureaucracy to regulate the gambling parlors after they open.
When Ruffin walked away in May, his parting shot called for fair taxation of track-based slots. He suggested the same 22 percent minimum tax that state-owned destination casinos must pay, plus add-ons that will push casinos’ total tax to around 30 percent.
The lawmakers’ theory was that comparatively modest racino gambling parlors won’t cost as much to build and thus will carry less debt and require less overhead to operate.
That’s true, to a point. But Kansas lawmakers probably crossed that point 10 or 20 percent ago.
Missouri casinos pay 20 percent plus admission fees that push the bottom line tax to around 27 or 28 percent.
Relatively low taxes have enabled Missouri’s riverboat casinos over the years to reinvest hundreds of millions of dollars back into their facilities with physical plant upgrades, the newest slots and generous player rewards.
Missouri was wise enough to count its blessings and not kill the golden goose with confiscatory taxes.
But Kansas’ racetrack golden goose could be a dead duck before she lays her first egg.
Racetrack slots single-handedly revived the racing industry in this country and saved many tracks from closing their doors.
The Woodlands hasn’t turned a penny of profit since riverboat gambling came along in the mid-’90s.
Only the hope of slots and the benevolence of St. Joseph’s Grace family, which owns the track and has underwritten its red ink all these years, have kept the place open.
Now, with slots finally within reach, shortsighted state law may take it all away.
“We’ve been here a long time and wish to continue,” Schmitter said. “The economy and the tax rates make it a challenging scenario.”
To reach Rick Alm, call 816-234-4785 or send e-mail to ralm@kcstar.com.