He has no plans to bring greyhound racing back, however. “It won’t be next year…Possibly the year after.” “There’s some hurdles we’re trying to solve right now,” Ruffin said. He predicts the property could reopen in 2023 or 2024. He also plans to add 50,000 square feet for a purpose he declined to specify. Ruffin plans to remodel the property to accommodate the 1,000 machines. Prior to the 2007 vote, Ruffin claimed he had been losing $200,000 a month on the greyhound track and kept it open “only on the possibility that slot machines could reverse its fortunes,” The Wichita Eagle reported in 2008. Ruffin needs slots because greyhound racing alone wasn’t profitable - and animal rights activists have opposed dog racing for years. Why did the Wichita Greyhound Park close? Historical horse racing machines look and play like slot machines but instead of randomizing play outcomes, determine winners based on previously run horse races. “Try everything…,” Ruffin said in a phone interview with The Wichita Beacon. Now Phil Ruffin is looking at a future with a greyhound park without greyhounds featuring slot machines that aren’t slots. In a newly passed law to legalize sports betting is a provision to allow 1,000 “historical horse racing machines” on Ruffin’s property. It seemed he had finally given up when he put the greyhound track up for auction earlier this year, but then the state legislature finally gave him his wish. He repeatedly - and without success - lobbied the Kansas Legislature to allow him to install slot machines or to put the issue back to a vote with another local referendum. For 15 years, it sat dormant while Ruffin tried to bring it back to life in some shape or form. When Sedgwick County voted down a proposal to allow slot machines at billionaire Phil Ruffin’s dog racing track in 2007, the Wichita Greyhound Park shut down. Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription.

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