Published Sunday, March 2, 2003
By Michael Roknick
Herald Business Editor
Out of elected office for more than a dozen years, former state lawmaker Roy Wilt is still in the harness as the question of whether slot machines should be allowed at Pennsylvania's horse tracks is debated.
Wilt, who represented the former 8th District in the state House for 12 years and the 50th District in the Senate before retiring in 1990, is the chairman of the Pennsylvania Harness Racing Commission.
With the state is facing a budget shortfall upwards of $2 billion, Gov. Ed Rendell is corralling forces to allow slots at the state's harness and horse racing tracks.
"I don't think there's much resistance to slots in the tracks," said Wilt. "People who want to gamble will gamble. It isn't the most positive thing we can engage in but if we can get slots in maybe we won't have to raise taxes."
As chairman the state's Harness Racing Commission, Wilt oversees an authority which sets and enforces regulations at the state's two harness tracks in Washington County and in the Poconos. The commission also has oversight of harness racing events at more than a dozen fairs, including The Stoneboro Fair and fairs in Meadville and Butler.
Raising horses on his 150-acre Sugar Grove Township farm -- none of which are used for racing -- Wilt believes slots will be passed by the legislature within the next two months. But it's going to take some wheeling and dealing in the senate for that to happen, he said.
Proceeds from slots wouldn't be available to bail out the state this year. But Rendell is betting it would shore up next year's budget which begins July 1. If approved by the legislature, slots could be at the four tracks as early as fall. A fifth horse race track has been licensed for Erie.
In addition to shoring up the state's finances, slots would give the horse and harness racing industry a boost, Wilt said. If slots are approved he believes the state has to pony up part of those proceeds to horsemen. The industry has an estimated 32,000 jobs tied to the industry from breeders to jockeys and people employed at the tracks.
"Participation in horse racing has diminished and has put a hardship on horsemen and the purse structure," Wilt said. "The horse people have been advocating slots at the tracks for years."
With electronic, off-track and telephone betting gaining in popularity, fewer people visit race tracks, he said.
"You have these huge facilities which are basically underutilized,'' Wilt said.
Other states that allow slots at their race tracks have siphoned off attendance in Pennsylvania, he said. Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort in Chester, W.Va., is less than a 90-minute drive for most Mercer County residents.
Since tracks are located in isolated areas, slots are an easier political sell than casinos or riverboat gambling, he added.
"They were built out in the middle of a field somewhere," he said of the tracks. "You don't walk or drive past them going to and from work and they don't detract to the neighborhoods."
But a big factor in slots will be how the proceeds are earmarked. Wilt believes slot proceeds should follow the lead of the Pennsylvania Lottery where funds go to senior citizen programs.
"I suspect slot revenues will be sold on the basis of them going into education,'' he said. "It makes it more politically palatable for people who have to run through those raindrops -- to try to attach this to something for the greater good."
If it weren't for the state's declining financial resources, slots would never have left the gate, Wilt said.
"I would suspect if we weren't into this economic downturn and revenues were still flowing in, slots would be something we would be talking about in the abstract."
After retiring from the Senate, Wilt served on the state's Ethics Commission until 1998. He was appointed to the Harness Racing Commission shortly after that. His son Rod E. Wilt now serves as 17th District representative, covering much of his father's former 8th District.