Track Owner Blames 'Archaic' Horse Racing Laws For Sale To Bears

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL — While struggling racetracks have remained in business across the country after adding gambling options like video slots, electronic table games, sports betting and casinos, it was never in the cards at Arlington International Racecourse.

"Our decision to sell Arlington Park wasn't really any kind of comment on Chicago or the Chicagoland region, or even the state of Illinois. It was really a comment on the archaic racing laws that haven't really been changed in any material way in that state in the last 30-plus years and no longer worked," Churchill Downs Incorporated CEO Bill Carstanjen said during a recent quarterly earnings call with investors.

RELATED: Bears Sign Purchase Agreement To Buy Arlington Park For $197M

Last month, CDI withdrew its bid for licensing to operate a casino in Waukegan, not long after the sale of the Arlington property to the Bears was announced. CDI applied for the license in 2019. That decision comes as the company said it plans an $87 million expansion at its Rivers Casino property in Des Plaines, as reported by Daily Herald in August.

"With respect to Waukegan, the process has been out there for a long time. After a lot of discussion with Rush Street Gaming, our partner in the bid, we decided it was important to focus with all we have going on with Rivers," Carstanjen said. "We are making a material investment in Rivers. We've had a great deal of success there."

Though he called Chicago a "great American city" and that his company has been part of the region for a long time, Carstanjen said CDI is not submitting a bid for a proposed downtown casino. A deadline for this bid passed on Oct. 29.

"That's not a comment on that process [or Chicago]. I think it's going to bounce back and be stronger than ever," Carstanjen said of the decision. "That's just a comment of where we are with all of our projects and all that we have going on. We want to make sure we do the projects we have well."

In 2019, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a $45-billion infrastructure plan (Rebuild Illinois) that included the expansion of casino gaming in the state. It allowed for six new casinos to be built in the state. Six regions — Chicago, Rockford, Williamson County, Waukegan, Danville and the South suburbs— were granted casino license capability.

"While gaming was passed, it wasn't really passed in a form that was enough to make up for the racing paradigm in the state," Carstanjen said.

He added that the other two racetracks in Illinois — Hawthorne Race Course and Fairmount Park — have also not built any gaming since the legislation passed.

CDI, based in Kentucky, said the closing of the sale of Arlington to the Bears is subject to the "satisfaction of various closing conditions," with an anticipated date of late 2022 or early 2023.

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