Trouble in Betting Paradise : Commentary: Parimutuel wagering is down at all venues in south Florida.

While most people may visit south Florida for the sunshine and the beaches, some of us have always come here for the gambling. Except for Nevada, no place in America offers more action. Not only does Gulfstream Park present some of the best thoroughbred racing in the country, but the greyhound racing, harness racing and jai-alai have long made this region a parimutuel paradise.

Years ago, some of my racetrack cronies and I set out to wager on every gambling event offered here in a single day. We sped between tracks and frontons, placing wagers at advance-betting windows when we couldn’t be there live, and when the day was done we had played 74 races and jai-alai games. It was exhilarating.

Today there are more parimutuel events than ever, but the gambling scene here is not what it used to be. Although Gulfstream is thriving, because of its simulcasts to tracks around the country, the rest of the parimutuel industry is suffering and dispirited.

Miami Jai-Alai, once considered the citadel of the sport, epitomizes the decline. The fronton used to be packed with tourists and local Latinos who roared at every point. The atmosphere was electric. But now the sound of the ball hitting the court wall at 150 m.p.h. echoes through a largely empty auditorium. On a typical weekday evening, the attendance is less than 1,000 and the handle less than $100,000.

Only a few years ago, jai-alai and greyhound racing were so popular that thoroughbred tracks were endangered by their strength. Gulfstream’s management complained that it was being severely hurt by competing matinees at Hollywood Greyhound Track. But since 1987 the business of the other parimutuel operations has declined in a stunning fashion.

Hollywood, considered the nation’s premiere dog track, drew a total attendance of 927,857 during its 1987 season. Last year the figure was 523,421. The state’s jai-alai frontons, in their fiscal year that ended in 1987, handled $414 million in wagers. In 1994, betting was less than half of that amount.

What has caused this stunning decline?

Jai-alai was hurt by an acrimonious players’ strike that lasted two years. Picketing strikers heaped abuse on customers as they entered the frontons. Even loyal fans were turned off by the low quality of the strikebreakers’ play. Yet Steve Snyder, president of Dania Jai-Alai, insists his industry’s big worry is the same one that has afflicted parimutuel facilities from coast to coast: competition.

“Two things have happened to us,” said Snyder. “One is the increase in the number of sports activities in this market--the Heat, the Panthers, the Marlins--as well as televised sports. The other is the increase in gambling activity--Indian gaming, the lottery, a plethora of bingo activities and the number of cruise boats that take passengers past the three-mile limit where gambling is legal.”

Dog racing has been beset by the same competition, and it has other problems. Unlike jai-alai, which is a glorified numbers game, greyhounds can be handicapped; Hollywood was once the wintertime home of dog bettors from all over the country. I used to count on a local wise guy named Ticket Bob for handicapping assistance. But Ticket Bob has quit the game he used to love and goes to Gulfstream instead.

The reason, he said, is partly the dilution of the quality of racing. Hollywood runs 150 races per week--15-race cards seven nights a week, plus three matinees--and too many cheap, unreliable dogs are filling these races. Moreover, the drop in attendance at Hollywood has taken much of the tourist money from the betting pools; wise guys are betting against other wise guys, and there are few edges to be found.

Thoroughbred racing has been affected by many of the same problems as the greyhounds and jai-alai, but it has weathered them better. Doug Donn, Gulfstream’s president, said, “I’d like to believe our product has held up better in the face of more gambling competition.” But attendance at Gulfstream and the other Florida horse tracks has declined sharply. The only thing that has saved Gulfstream is its simulcasting races throughout the state and around the country. More than 80% of its betting comes from outside the track.

For the rest of the parimutuel industry, which doesn’t have a product appropriate to the simulcasting market, there is perhaps only one last hope. “In order to compete,” said Snyder, “we have to be able to expand our product line--just the way Procter and Gamble can.” By this he means that Dania Jai-Alai ought to be able to offer forms of gambling that are more in demand than jai-alai. He and others in the jai-alai and greyhound businesses were understandably excited about a proposal to grant casino licenses to every parimutuel operator in Florida, but the electorate voted down the plan.

However, revenue from the parimutuel industry is important enough to Florida that the state will probably have to help the suffering track and jai-alai operators; the legalization of casino gambling is probably inevitable.