TALLAHASSEE -- With the future of gambling in Florida still unresolved, lawmakers are considering giving the state's struggling horse and dog tracks a new video-style gaming machine to help them attract new business.

''Historic racing'' games operate on computerized machines that replay previously run, but unidentifiable, races that viewers can bet on as though they are live simulcast races.

House and Senate negotiators will meet in public today to begin the formal process of settling their differences on two very different gambling bills. The Senate proposal would give horse and dog tracks and jai alai frontons outside of Miami-Dade and Broward counties the ''historic racing'' games to help increase purses and attract higher stakes races.

Several House members say they believe the new games might offer some middle ground for the two sides, and the games would not be opposed by the Seminole Tribe, another large gambling interest in Florida.

Because the games look like slot machines, they appeal to younger players. But because they allow players to wager bets with other players in a pool, promoters say it's just an extension of the kind of gambling tracks already offer.

''If they pass this, it will save racing in Florida,'' said Louis A. Cella, whose family developed the patent for the machines to help their struggling race track in High Springs, Ark.

Opponents, however, say the terminals are merely slot machines in disguise that randomly choose winners.

''This is an endgame around the prohibition of slot machines,'' said Christine A. Dorchak, president and general counsel of Grey2K USA, a greyhound protection organization.

There's only one place in the country where these ''races'' currently are legal: at the Cella family's Oaklawn Park Racing and Gaming facility in Arkansas.

And there is only one manufacturer -- RaceTech, owned by the Cella family. If Florida approves the games, RaceTech would be the sole provider.

The company says it hasn't hired any Florida lobbyists to push the machines. It says the owners of tracks are pushing for the machines, including greyhound tracks in Naples, Hamilton County and Jacksonville and horse tracks such as Tampa Bay Downs and the Gulfstream Park in Hallandale.

''It'll give us a product to stay competitive,'' said Isadore Havenick, vice president of the greyhound racing company that owns both Flagler and Naples dog tracks.

Although Flagler has won the right to install slot machines to help enhance its purses, Naples needs a boost ''to keep it competitive,'' he said.

Attempts to operate the machines in Wyoming and Oregon were withdrawn after courts determined they were illegal there. The Wyoming Supreme Court threw out the racing games at the Wyoming Downs horse track in Evanston after the state attorney general filed a challenge.

''We are not dealing with a new technology here, we are dealing with a slot machine that attempts to mimic traditional parimutuel wagering,'' the Wyoming Supreme Court in a May 2006 opinion. ``Although it may be a good try, we are not so easily beguiled.''

Cella argues that the machines require the same level of skill required to bet in a horse race, noting that the more a player understands how to handicap a race, the better results he has.

Here's how they work:

• Players insert 25 cents to $1 into the machine and place a bet on one of more than 100,000 horse and dog races that have been previously recorded across the country.

• The terminal displays past performance information, as published in the Daily Racing Form for horse races or Rosner for dog races, to allow the player to handicap the race. Computer terminals are connected to a central server operated by AmTote International, a Maryland-based company owned by Magna Entertainment, which also owns Gulfstream Park.

• Horses, jockeys and dogs are identified only by number making it statistically impossible for the player to know the result of the race before making a bet.

• The player then has an option to view the entire race or only the final furlong, allowing for a player to bet on dozens of games within minutes.

In 2008, Cella said Oaklawn Park handled $228 million in ''instant racing'' games and ''added millions to the state of Arkansas in new taxes.'' But opponents say the debate is dishonest.

''If dog racing can't generate revenues, they should close and lawmakers shouldn't be propping them up,'' said Dorchak of Grey2K. ``If dog tracks want to be casino operators, they should say so and let the debate begin. The subterfuge is wrong.''

Mary Ellen Klas can be reached at meklas@MiamiHerald.com

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