Cohen Continues Bid To Bring Historical Horse Racing To Maryland

As Alyse Cohen explains it, legalizing historical horse racing (HHR) in Maryland would go a long way toward helping make sure horse racing continues to have a history in Maryland.

“Maryland horse racing is a dying industry,” said Cohen, a third generation horseman and owner of Long Shot’s, an off-track betting venue in Frederick County. “When I was a kid, I grew up on a farm. … And when I was a kid, we had over 300 race days. Now we’re down to, I believe, 126.”

Cohen likened that reduction to a restaurant owner cutting hours at a restaurant, calling it “a death spiral.” She added that “if we want to reinvigorate the space and not lose money, then we have to innovate.

“HHR is that solution.”

Back with some tweaks

Sens. Paul Corderman and Karen Lewis Young are again at the legislative forefront of trying to legalize HHR. They made tweaks to this year’s effort in SB 639, which notably includes bringing legalization to the voters via referendum in November if it passes through the statehouse.

At a Senate Budget and Taxation Committee hearing last week, Corderman said failing to legalize HHR “won’t only be a lost opportunity to increase revenue, we’re going to be on the other side of it. We’re going to be making up for lost revenue.”

Both Corderman and Cohen have cited a potential $40 million in lost gaming tax revenue to neighboring states, and Virginia has had HHR operators conducting business since 2019. A fiscal policy note accompanying SB 639 estimated that 2,400 HHR machines in operation across Maryland’s OTB and casino locations could generate $56.5 million in revenue in the first year (Fiscal Year 2028) and potentially $188.3 million at full maturity in FY 2031.

“We knew we can raise … a tremendous amount of tax dollars,” Cohen said. “I think once people understand that benefit to the state does not hurt them whatsoever, they’ll absolutely be behind this.

“Marylanders are sick of having their taxes raised. They’re sick of living in a very high-cost state. We need new sources of revenue. And this is one of the biggest sources we are introducing this year in Maryland.”

The need to diversify gaming

Keeping Long Shot’s open has mostly been an uphill fight for Cohen. The venue originally opened in July 2019 purely as an OTB location prior to the pandemic, and it added retail sports betting in November 2022, partnering with Betfred.

That partnership, however, lasted only 20 months, and Cohen relaunched with Caesars in December 2024. The sportsbook has generated more than $400,000 in adjusted gross revenue over its 14-month life, but that figure is before taxes and operating costs are deducted. And that is in addition to OTB revenue statewide declining by 40% in recent years.

“We believe if we get historic horse racing, this is a $250 million reinvestment project,” Cohen said. “We can reinvigorate the conference center where the OTB and sportsbook sit in my location. We can do restaurants. We can do more retail, and not to mention we know 100 jobs result from 500 HHR machines.

“And that doesn’t include the hundreds of jobs in hotels, restaurants, concerts. There could be another 500 jobs at my location. The economic boom that will result for rural and local economies is tremendous.”

Countering casino cannibalization claims

The casino industry came out forcefully against SB 639 during last week’s committee hearing, claiming HHR would cannibalize slot revenue. The state’s six casinos pay an average tax rate of 55% on video lottery terminals (VLTs), ranging from 40% to 61%; Corderman and Lewis Young’s bill would tax HHR machines at 40% at OTB locations and mirror the tax rate for casinos that wish to host HHR positions.

Cohen feels that the casino’s claims are somewhat overblown because the OTB locations are nowhere near Maryland casinos, and some of those operators are already competing against Virginia-based HHRs and other out-of-state gaming operators.

“The good news about every OTB in the state of Maryland is they’re so geographically removed from Maryland land-based casinos,” said Cohen, whose venue is less than 30 miles from Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races in West Virginia and nearly 50 miles from the closest Maryland-based casino, Live! Casino & Hotel in Hanover.

The Cordish Companies, which owns Live!, recently opened a casino in Petersburg, Virginia, that has 1,800 HHR machines operating within 50 miles of that venue.

“If I’m an hour-plus away from Live! [in Maryland], how am I hurting their business?” Cohen mused. “It’s absolutely logical to put historic horse racing at my location.”

Up next, the House

The next stop for Cohen is the Maryland House Ways and Means Committee, which will hear testimony on HB 1240, which is the lower-chamber companion bill to SB 639, sponsored by Dels. Kris Fair and Jason Buckel.

This will be Cohen’s second go-round testifying in the House, and one senses she is equal parts one year older and one year wiser, but also armed with a year’s worth of confidence from building momentum.

“We’re doing something pretty awesome for the state of Maryland,” she said. “We OTBs do not want to be going with their hand out to Maryland saying, ‘Save us.’ We are offering a solution to our problem, and then we’re offering a solution that contributes hundreds of millions of dollars to Maryland.

“We’re not out to hurt the casinos. In fact, we do not cannibalize their business pretty much whatsoever, and furthermore we’re doing something that is a net positive, so we’re excited to present that information.”