Ambitions to instal 225 historical gymnastic horse racing machines at Hiram Ulysses Grant Pass Downs’ unexampled gaming and amusement center could live a nonstarter.

On Friday, Oregon AG Ellen Rosenblum issued an judgment that the machines sought-after(a) by the Flying Lark readiness were more the likes of slots and drawing games than the pari-mutuel gymnastic horse race betting permitted at racetracks.

In a nine-page opinion, the AG’s Office said than no more more 75 such machines should live permitted at any single venue because it would violate the ban on casinos inward the state.

That’s because the Oregon Supreme royal court has set that “establishments whose dominant utilize or dominant purpose, or both, is for gambling” characterize as casinos.

Smell the Coffee

Grants Pass Downs is owned past billionaire Travis Boersma, who, with his brother, Dane, founded the Dutch people Bros Coffee company. The brothers were born and raised inward the SW OR townsfolk of Grants Pass.

Boersma has said he believes the Flying Lark will assist metamorphose Grants Pass, Oregon’s cobbler's last pureblood racetrack, into an “epicenter of planetary racing.” But he needs those machines.

In January, the coffee magnate said he would be forced to lay away 226 workers — that’s 1.004 per political machine — unless the say racing commissioning greenlit the application.

Historical gymnastic horse racing terminals enable players to wager on replays of past times races with the identities of those races hidden. They are permitted at racetracks because they broadly utilise the pari-mutuel betting system of rules permitted in the Beaver State constitution.

But the AG opinion, written past chief counsel Renee Stineman, said they are zilch to a greater extent than “electronic games of chance with no meaningful human relationship to traditional parimutuel racing wagers.”

“It is evident from their features that the games are intentional to encourage players to introduce payment, pushing a button, and keep an eye on what happens,” she wrote.

Tribal Backlash

The Oregon Racing Commission requested the effectual thought after receiving the Flying Lark coating finally year. The proposed play expanding upon had prompted a backlash from a coalition of tribal operators. They mat their exclusivity on casino gaming in the country was under threat.

The tribes wanted a comprehensive review article of the state’s play landscape, noting it has been a billet of a century since the in conclusion one.

Boersma now faces an uphill battle. But in an functionary statement, he sounded the likes of he was inward a fighting mood. He said the judgement “willfully disregards the state’s laws, which were lobbied for and agreed upon by Oregon’s monarch nations.”

I trust the OR Racing Commission is acting inwards serious faith and the physical process will finally reveal the Flying Lark to follow a legal hazard that serves to improve Oregon’s economy,” he continued.

“I remain committed to saving gymnastic horse racing inwards Oregon, providing house remuneration jobs inward Southern Oregon, and workings closely with tribal leaders to ensure all Oregonians benefit from the opening of the Flying Lark.”