BOISE — “Strongly leaning” toward voting in favor of legislation to repeal the 2013-enacted law allowing wagering on instant video horse racing in Idaho.

That was how Idaho Senate President Pro Tempore Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, described his position on Senate Bill 1011 Friday.

Meanwhile, competing legislation introduced Friday by Sen. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, includes a requirement that the instant horse racing at the Double Down sports bar in Idaho Falls be moved back to the Sandy Downs racetrack, also in Idaho Falls.

    SB1011 has been scheduled for a full hearing Monday in the Idaho Legislature’s nine-member Senate State Affairs Committee — of which Hill is a member.

    Hill, however, said he’s “not twisting any arms” for favoring votes on SB1011 among members of the Senate State Affairs Committee — which is stacked with Senate leadership members, both Republicans and Democrats.

    “I may have an idea of how some of them are leaning, but I haven’t asked for any commitments, nor have I given mine for sure,” Hill said.

    However, Hill added: “I’ll admit that that’s the way I’m leaning, that’s the way I’m strongly leaning, but I want to hear all of the testimony, and all of the presentations before I commit my vote on anything.”    

Short of an outright repeal of instant horse racing, Nonini’s bill carves out exceptions for three locations for instance horse racing to continue. In addition to Sandy Downs, those exempted locations include the Greyhound Park and Event Center in Post Falls — in Nonini’s home legislative district — and at Les Bois Park in Boise.

“I have a larger concern about the philosophical concern about repealing legislation that was just passed recently,” Nonini said, then referred to a 2014-passed law. “The example I have been using is the Idaho Tax Reimbursement Act.”

Hill referred to the devices used for instant horse racing — also termed “historical horse racing” by some — as “slot machines,” during a Friday morning interview.

    Hill said that he and Senate Assistant Majority Leader Chuck Winder, R-Boise, visited Les Bois Park on Jan. 31 to find out about the instant racing machines in operation.

    “We lost three bucks, because we just wanted to see how it worked, you know?” Hill said. “And, then we spent time just walking around. You know, was anybody watching the race?”

    Hill concluded: “You’ve got rows and rows and rows of slot machines, one after another. People are just pushing the buttons.”

    In 2013, Hill voted on the Senate floor against the House Bill 220 — the legislation that ultimately made wagering on instant horse racing legal in Idaho. Hill said the racing industry, after a possible instant horse racing repeal via SB1011 could go, “back to the drawing board to come up with something that maybe more closely resembles what most of us thought we were getting into to start with.”

    “If that’s the will of the Legislature ... Let’s repeal it, let’s have a fresh start, and then, if they want to go back to the drawing board and try sell it to us, then that’s the way the system works, and I don’t resent that at all,” Hill said.  

    Hill indicated that slot machine-type devices weren’t what legislators thought instant horse racing was when they passed the 2013 law.

    Hill made the successful motion to print as an official bill Nonini’s draft legislation, “as a courtesy to my colleague in the Senate.”

    “They’re in conflict with one another,” Hill said of SB1011 and Nonini’s bill.  “So, we can’t pass them both. So, Monday we’ll see where that goes. If it (SB1011) comes out of committee, I don’t think there’ll be any need . . . for hearing the other one.”