(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission recently approved the 2021 racing season for the Iowa Greyhound Park in Dubuque. Racing and Gaming Administrator Brian Ohorilko says the bulk of the financing for the track comes from the fund created to allow the industry to consolidate. “These payments are made shortly after the first of the year. Half of that money can go to the Iowa Greyhound Association (IGA) to be used at Iowa Greyhound park for purses, operating costs, and any capital expenditures that need to be made to keep the facility up. In other words, to keep the racing surface safe, to keep the starting boxes and rails in working order,” Ohorilko says.

The fund created in 2015 allowed the greyhound tracks in Council Bluffs and Dubuque to phase out will the I-G-A took over as the only live race facility. That fund was roughly 72 million dollars but is starting to run out. “There will be adequate money — at least for the next two years for that industry,” he says. But Ohorilko says the final payment will be made in January of 2022. “So at that point in time, unless something changes, the Iowa Greyhound Association would have to support greyhound racing with revenues they receive from simulcast racing,” according to Ohorilko.

Ohorilko says the operators will have to make a decision when simulcast revenue is their only income source. “That revenue that they receive is significantly less than the amount of money that they receive from the cessation payments — so it really would make it difficult unless the demand really increases from the simulcast outlets,” Ohorilko says. The I-G-A was approved for 112 race dates for 2021, which Ohorilko says is eight more than last year.