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The operators of Grants Pass Downs and the Flying Lark, an adjacent gambling, dining and drinking establishment, today notified the state that it will lay off 226 workers at the end of February—if the Oregon Racing Commission fails to approve its application to install 225 betting machines.
“We are waiting for authorization to open from the Oregon Racing Commission,” wrote Flying Lark chief administrative officer Katy Burris in a notice to the state. “We expected to have a decision by December, but recently learned that now the Department of Justice must issue a decision before the Oregon Racing Commission will determine whether we can open and the Department of Justice is delaying its decision.”
As WW reported last year, Oregon’s nine tribes, which depend heavily on casino gambling, asked lawmakers in the 2021 session to pause any expansion of the Oregon Lottery or other legal gambling in the state and to bring all stakeholders together for a discussion of what should happen with betting in the future.
A bill that would have formed such a task force stalled, and the Oregon Racing Commission moved toward approving the Flying Lark’s request to install 225 “historical horse racing” machines.
Those devices are controversial. The Flying Lark, which is owned by Dutch Bros. Coffee CEO Travis Boersma, argues that state law allows the machines at commercial horse tracks. The now-defunct Portland Meadows deployed such machines, which allowed gamblers to bet on races that had previously been run at other tracks but for which bettors did not know the results.
But researchers hired by the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians say that the newer-generation machines the Flying Lark proposes to install are similar to video slot machines. The Oregon Racing Commission, whose members are appointed by Gov. Kate Brown, hoped to take up the issue of whether to approve the Flying Lark’s application last year. But in response to tribal concerns, Brown told the commission it needed to consult with the tribes, which are sovereign governments.
In the meantime, the tribes are pushing for legislation in the even-year session that begins Feb. 1 for lawmakers to order a pause on any gambling expansion. It’s not clear whether such legislation will pass, but in notifying the state of the consequences—226 layoffs—the Flying Lark has upped the ante.
“We never anticipated the commission’s delay on our approval,” Burris said in her letter to state officials.