Report: Judge orders turnoff of La. historic horse-racing machines

Historic horse-racing machines operated by racetrack owners in Louisiana were declared unconstitutional, and their shutdown was ordered by a local judge who said last Friday they were not covered when voters approved legal sports gambling.

The ruling by East Baton Rouge Parish judge Richard Moore was reported first this week by Legal Sports Report.

The lawsuit against Louisiana’s racetrack operators Churchill Downs Inc., Boyd Racing, Louisiana Downs and Evangeline Downs was brought by registered voters Donovan Fremin, Stan Guidroz, William Edward Judson Jr., Luke Labruzzo Jr., Rawlston Phillips III and Salvador P. Tantillo III.

Moore agreed with the six voters who are represented by New Orleans lawyer Tom Benjamin. They said HHR machines that invite players to bet on mostly forgotten old races were a new form of gambling that was not mentioned in a constitutional amendments in 1996 or in a related statewide vote in 2022 that OK’d sports wagering.

The defendants who funnel HHR money into race purses believe the machines should not need voter approval, because they fall under pari-mutuel wagering that has been legal in Louisiana for 84 years.

According to Thursday’s Legal Sports Report story, no appeal was filed yet by any of the defendants, although their deadline was said to be several weeks away. It also said the machines operated by CDI, which owns Fair Grounds, still were running Thursday. Boyd Racing, which owns Delta Downs and Evangeline Downs, was reported to have shut down its HHR terminals.