Day and night, gamblers crowd into the casino east of Des Moines and sit at thousands of slot machines and gaming tables — but the stands are largely empty at the complex's horse racing track.
The scene at the Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino is repeated at many of the three dozen racetrack casinos — or racinos — across the country, and the disparity in crowds and other factors have led more people to ask a question:

Why do laws allowing these state-controlled casinos to operate require them to divert so much of their profits to subsidize money-losing horse tracks instead of the public programs they're also supposed to support?

"Slot machines prop up their industry," said Dr. Guy Clark, a New Mexico dentist who is chairman of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling. "Why should the racetrack industry need bailing out by the government any more than any other industry? If it were some other industry that had outlived its usefulness, we generally would let it die."

People in the horse industry argue that lawmakers never would have allowed these casinos without the promise that they would keep horse tracks alive and protect thousands of jobs — from bet-takers to breeders.

Prairie Meadows, a nonprofit corporation, became the nation's first horse track to allow casino gambling in 1995 — four years after it went bankrupt from trying to rely on races alone.

Gambling at Prairie Meadows in 2006 generated more than $180 million and $57 million in profits. More than $20 million went to public programs and $4 million was given to charity, but nearly $30 million went to horse race purses and overhead.

Other states also use casinos to prop up the horse industry: