Meanwhile, the Idaho Racing Commission reported that $21.3 million total was wagered at three pari-mutuel sites featuring simulcast races last year. They operated every day of the year. Those simulcast sites are the Sandy Downs Fairgrounds in Idaho Falls; the Les Bois Park in Boise; and Greyhound Park in Post Falls.

It reports that another $1.7 million was wagered on live horse races in the state. Two-thirds of that was bet at the Les Bois park in Boise, which held races on 46 different days. The rest was bet on a circuit of county fairground races statewide.

EVANSTON, WYO.

About 85 percent of visitors, and gamblers, at the Wyoming Downs racetrack in Evanston, Wyo. are from Utah, according to Joan Ramos, director of corporate operations. It is about 80 miles from Salt Lake City.

Last year, the Downs attracted about 30,000 people over 18 days of races. The track spends $30,000 to $40,00 to advertise in Utah, mainly on TV and radio, Ramos says. She adds that according to a 1999 study by the University of Wyoming, the track generates $6.6 million in economic benefit to Evanston during its short race season.

Ramos notes that of the 1,146 licenses issued at the track for horse owners, trainers, jockeys and others, 605 were from Utah — or more than half of all race participants. By comparison, only 317 licenses were issued to Wyoming residents participating there.

She says the track depends heavily on the Utah horse industry, in part, because the track cannot offer purses as large as in some other Western states. "Other places have other gaming to supplement their purses," such as slot machines or casinos, she said. "We don't."

So horse owners from many Western states will travel to where the purses are larger — but many Utahns still make the short trip to Evanston.

In the 18 days of races last year, gamblers wagered $1.19 million at Wyoming Downs — up 6 percent over 2003, according to the Wyoming Pari-Mutuel Commission. By law, 80 percent is returned to bettors.

The new Morning News poll shows that 8 percent of Utahns say they have gambled at Wyoming Downs at one time or another, including 2 percent who did so in the past year.

Utahns need not wait for the race season in Evanston to bet there. An off-track betting site there features simulcasts from other tracks, allowing visitors to bet nearly every day of the year. Similar sites are found in Rock Springs, Casper and Cheyenne.

Those facilities received $10.2 million in wagers last year, according to the Wyoming Pari-Mutuel Commission.

Those sites also advertise "instant racing" machines. Ramos says, "They have all the bells and whistles of a slot machine, and run off the same computer technology."

However, she says they are not slots but machines based on past actual races — which follow the same rules of pari-mutuel betting.