Pensacola Greyhound Track & Poker Room is open to the public seven days a week. Come in and enjoy all the fun and excitement, whether you’re watching the latest simulcast race or grabbing a chair for a few rounds of poker, there’s something here for everyone! And don’t forget to enjoy a bite to eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner. We’ve got something to satisfy your hunger no matter what time you arrive.

Voters in Washington County, Fla., have approved slot machines at the Ebro Greyhound Park, about 30 minutes north of Panama City Beach, but don't start hoarding quarters for your beach vacations.

Poker Tables & Promotions

If you're looking for poker action, we've got lots of poker excitement going on daily. Want a little more out of your game? Join any of our live tournaments and promotions.

Simulcast Racing

Place your bets on our greyhound races or settle into a chair and watch one of many daily horse and greyhound simulcast races happening all across the country.

TALLAHASSEE — It’s official: Slots are on the table in the upcoming state legislative session.

TALLAHASSEE — It’s official: Slots are on the table in the upcoming state legislative session.

A measure to allow the six Florida counties that already approved the Las Vegas-style games is part of a three-bill package that the state Senate Gaming Committee unveiled Monday. The likelihood of passage, however, is unclear as the Legislature heads into session March 4.

The 453-page primary bill (SPB 7052) contains a veritable catchall of gaming recommendations made in the past year after the Senate panel went barnstorming across the state to collect public comment.

In addition to putting slots at six pari-mutuel facilities, including Washington County, the bill would create a gaming commission, pave the way for two South Florida destination casinos, require greyhound injury reporting and cut down on overall greyhound races.

Slot machines would be allowed at pari-mutuel facilities that held a countywide referendum after July 6, 2010. Washington County approved slots for Ebro Greyhound Park in 2012, when residents passed the measure by 57 percent.

The state attorney general blocked their installation, however, a move that has long vexed Ebro president and general manager Stockton Hess, who said the voters should be “outraged” if this bill doesn’t pass.

“It was a binding referendum; it was not a straw ballot,” Hess said Monday. “The voters should not be ignored or disenfranchised.”

Hess said he has no crystal ball and wouldn’t handicap the likelihood of the bill passage, but he gave assurances it would be a “very political” process.

Ebro Greyhound Park Closing

He pointed out it’s no secret the pari-mutuel facilities need other options to lure in players, particularly now that dog racing is a losing venture.

Ebro Greyhound Park Family Night

Decoupling left out

One surprise in the bill package, though, is the absence of a decoupling provision. Decoupling is the effort to remove the requirement for tracks to run a minimum number of greyhound races in order to operate a card room.

Many were confident decoupling was a shoe-in, but the bill only includes a provision that would cut tracks’ required races down to 100 performances a year. (A performance is eight races.)

Ebro is currently required to run 167 performances annually.

Committee Chairman Garrett Richter, R-Naples, who decided what went into the bill, pushed hard for the idea in committee but faced opposition from influential state Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, who said such a move would mean picking winners and losers.

The current proposal would reduce greyhound races overall, but it likely will disappoint tracks and animal-welfare advocates who sought to break the ties between dog races and card rooms altogether.

Ebro Greyhound Park Slot Machines Machine

The other two bills in the package are significantly smaller. One would create a grocery list of public records exemptions, mostly for the proposed gaming commission, and would require further gambling expansion be put to a vote by state constitutional amendment.

The Senate panel will discuss the bills at its March 3 meeting but will not vote to introduce them. Richter said in a memo that he wants a thorough, deliberate process so members can fully vet the legislation.

Richter said plenty of good measures failed to make the initial draft, but the committee can consider such proposals as amendments.

“That way, any proposed substantive changes will be transparent, and committee members will have ample opportunities to debate policy implications,” he said.

Meanwhile, the anti-gaming group No Casinos trashed the bill package, calling it “Christmas in February for out-of-state gambling interests.”

“This legislation reeks of gambling interest influence,” said John Sowinski, No Casinos’ president. “I have yet to find any major provision that isn’t there at the request of somebody in the gambling industry.”