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(L21, Ch. 405, sec. 1)

A. Permits for horse or harness racing meetings shall be approved and issued for substantially the same dates allotted to permittees for the same type of racing during the preceding year or for other dates that permittees request, provided that, in the event there is a conflict in dates requested between two or more permittees in the same county for the same kind of racing, the permittee whose application is for substantially the same dates as were allotted to the permittee in the preceding year shall be entitled to have preference over other permittees. In the event two or more permittees have agreed that the dates to be allotted to each of them each year shall be alternated from one year to the next, the commission shall recognize their agreement and those permittees may be accorded preference over any other permittee as to those dates to be allotted to those permittees on an alternating basis. Except as otherwise provided, the commission shall allot dates to the respective permittees after giving due consideration to all of the factors involved and the interests of permittees, the public and this state.

B. The commission may require by the terms of any permit that the permittee offer such number of races during any racing meeting as the commission shall determine, provided that the permittee shall be permitted to offer at least the same number of races each day as offered in the prior year. The commission shall require each horse racing permittee to conduct for a period of thirty days a number of races equal to an average of at least two races for each day of racing exclusively for quarter horses. If, in the opinion of the commission, the permittee is offering acceptable quarter horse races but an honest effort is not being put forth to fill these races by the horsemen, the commission may rescind the two race per day quarter horse requirement.

C. Live racing and wagering on simulcast races shall be permissible in either daytime or nighttime. Unless otherwise agreed by written contract that is submitted to the department between all the permittees in the same county, there shall be no wagering on simulcast dog races before 4:15 p.m., mountain standard time, on the same day that there is live daytime horse or harness racing in any county in which commercial horse or harness racing has been conducted before February 1, 1971. The hours during which any other harness or horse racing is to be conducted shall be determined by the commission. The application for a permit shall state the exact days on which racing will be held and the time of day during which racing will be conducted.

D. If the commission determines that an emergency has obligated or may obligate a permittee to discontinue racing at a location, the commission may authorize the permittee to transfer racing for the number of days lost to any other location.

E. A racing meeting, when operated by a county fair racing association or under lease during the county fair to any individual, corporation or association, shall not come under the limitation placed on days of racing in this section.

F. The department shall be the judge of whether a county fair racing meeting is being operated pursuant to this section. A county fair racing meeting conducted by an individual, corporation or association, other than the properly authorized county fair racing association, shall come under the general provisions of this article the same as a commercial meeting. Notwithstanding this subsection, a county fair racing meeting, whether conducted by a county fair racing association or by an individual, corporation or association other than a county fair racing association, is exempt from the requirement prescribed in section 5-111 to pay to the state a percentage of the pari-mutuel pool collected at the meeting.

G. The commission may allow a permittee, in addition to the days specified in this permit, to operate up to three racing days during any one meeting as charity days. From the amount deducted from the total handled in the pari-mutuel pool on charity days, the permittee shall deduct an amount equal to the purses and the cost of conducting racing on these days, and shall donate the balance to nonprofit organizations and corporations that benefit the general public, that are engaged in charitable, benevolent and other like work and that are selected by the permittee and approved by the department. In no event shall the amount given to charity from charity racing days be less than the amount that otherwise would have gone to this state as the state’s share on a noncharity racing day.

H. Notwithstanding any other law, live dog racing shall not be conducted in this state after December 31, 2016. This subsection does not apply to nonprofit organizations that host lure coursing or similar events that test a dog’s ability, stamina and breeding or training for such events. Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, any dog racing permittee that offered live dog racing in 2016 or that has offered live dog racing in eight out of ten calendar years from 1980 to 1990 in counties that have a population of less than five hundred thousand persons shall be considered as operating a racetrack enclosure for all purposes under this article and shall not be authorized or required to conduct live racing as a condition of that permittee’s racing permit. Any permittee qualified under this subsection may conduct advance deposit wagering, wagering at additional wagering facilities that are owned or leased by that permittee and wagering on telecasts of races conducted at racetrack enclosures within this state or at racetrack enclosures outside this state without offering live racing at that permittee’s racetrack enclosure. On or before January 1, 2023, the department shall convert the permit of a dog racing permittee under this subsection to a permit for harness racing if the dog racing permittee meets the qualifications for a permit for harness racing.