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Horse-racing terminals violate Oregon constitution, concludes DOJ

Dutch Bros Chairman and Co-Founder Travis Boersma rings the first trade bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Sept. 15.
Photo courtesy Dutch Bros
Dutch Bros Chairman and Co-Founder Travis Boersma rings the first trade bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Sept. 15.

Plans to build a gambling house with horse-racing terminals in Grants Pass were effectively killed Friday afternoon by an opinion from the Oregon Department of Justice.

The question was whether it was legal under Oregon鈥檚 constitution to operate a facility with 225 horse-racing terminals, which are similar to slot machines that allow participants to bet on old horse races. The answer from Oregon鈥檚 attorneys: 鈥淣o.鈥

鈥淭he planned concentration of 225 electronic gaming machines offering games of chance constitutes a casino,鈥 the reads.

It concludes that it would therefore violate the state鈥檚 constitutional prohibition of casinos.

The advisory opinion was presented privately to the Oregon Racing Commission Tuesday, then published publicly on the justice department鈥檚 website Friday afternoon.

Dutch Bros co-founder Travis Boersma has poured millions of dollars into the facility called the Flying Lark, where he planned to install the 鈥渉istoric horse-racing鈥 terminals where participants bet on old horse races. The entertainment venue boasted that it would have brought more than 150 jobs to Josephine County.

Copyright 2022

April Ehrlich reports on lands and environmental policy for Oregon Public Broadcasting, a JPR news partner. Her reporting comes to JPR through the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.