Count me as skeptical on whether you can have a “racetrack” without actual horses running around an oval.

But with the passage of slot machine and casino legislation stymied on Beacon Hill after years of debate, a strange and somewhat sad second act is shaping up for Bay State track owners.

It’s one that would likely see live racing cut back or banished entirely, with horse tracks lingering on in name as glorified, back-room betting parlors as their owners tee up their sprawling acreage for redevelopment.

It’s a future in which a few die-hard patrons will watch races piped in on TV screens from tracks across the country — but in which you’ll have to drive to New York or Pennsylvania to see an actual racehorse in full gallop.

The writing, in fact, is already on the stall doors. The two local tracks still featuring live horse racing – Suffolk Downs in East Boston and Plainridge on the Rhode Island border – are either cutting back on live racing or contemplating a future without it.

“It is the last undeveloped property on any 495 exit,” said Plainridge chief Gary Piontkowski, a former state racing regulator who has spent years lobbying to bring slot machines to the small harness track. “At what point do you look at how much you have invested?”

Chasing The Dream

In a sign of things to come, the owners of Suffolk Downs are in talks with the association that represents racehorse owners, trainers and others to cut back on the number of live races. The aim is to reduce the number of so-called “racing days” to less than 70 from more than a hundred now.

In the town of Plainville, Plainridge Racecourse’s owners are grappling with a similar dilemma.

The track has lost millions over the past few years on live racing. And if proposals to legalize slot machines falter yet again this year on Beacon Hill, it will be time to take a serious look at the future of the operation, Alfred Ross, one of the track’s top investors, indicated in a recent interview.

In a telling comment, Ross noted the track might just be able to struggle along with slot machines – that is if it stopped putting on races and simply offered simulcasting. As mentioned above, that involves a room full of TV monitors broadcasting races from other racetracks that patrons can bet on.

“Our numbers show that without live racing we could be marginally profitable,” he said.

You hardly need a 200-acre racetrack to do that – your local American Legion hall will do.

OK, it may seem early for track owners to be contemplating Plan B, but take my word for it, it isn’t.

Local track owners have pumped tens of millions of dollars over the past several years into one of the greatest losing bets ever – the prospect that Massachusetts might someday legalize Las Vegas-style gambling, especially slot machines.

A group of investors led by a former Massachusetts racing commissioner and a Las Vegas tycoon have pumped more than $32 million into Plainridge since the late 1990s in a bid to keep the track afloat in hopes of getting a green light for lucrative slots.

Casino developer Richard Fields, who arrived from New York a few years ago to take the reins at equally unprofitable Suffolk, has also spent untold millions in pursuit of the casino dream.

Redevelopment Plans

But years of lobbying and forging alliances on Beacon Hill have come to naught for track owners, who have suffered one humiliating legislative defeat after another.

Of course, everyone is saying all the right things again. This year’s legislation session at the State House is still young and House Speaker Robert DeLeo and others are talking about finally passing a gambling bill.

The only problem is this is what always happens, with brave talk in January and February followed by collapse and humiliation in April, May, June and July. I’ll reserve judgment, but I won’t be surprised if track owners find themselves empty handed once again.

If so, then I suspect that Plan B will get rolled out.

And while it is likely we’ll start to see the beginning of the end for live racing in Massachusetts, running sad sack simulcasting centers is hardly the end goal for investors who have long hoped to get even richer by hitting the casino jackpot.

Instead, get ready for a round of massive development plans that will eventually pave and build over the rolling acreage that now surrounds Suffolk and Plainridge.

If you weren’t crazy about the idea of a big casinos sprouting up across the state, well let’s just say you are probably not going to love the mammoth collection of big box stores, mediocre hotels and second rate retailers and restaurants that will replace the old tracks.

But let’s get serious – this is not a choice between letting racetracks turn themselves into mini Caesar’s Palaces or doing nothing. One way or another, big changes – and lots of new development – will be coming to our local racetracks.

The only question is what kind.