Only a Handful of Nations Still Host Commercial Dog Racing — and the List Is Shrinking
Commercial greyhound racing in 2026 exists in fewer than ten countries. The exact count depends on how you define “active” — some jurisdictions have tracks that are technically operational but staging fewer meetings each year, while others have passed bans that are not yet fully implemented. The trajectory, however, is unambiguous. The number of countries permitting commercial dog racing has been falling for two decades, and the pace of decline has accelerated since 2020 with legislative actions in the United States, New Zealand, Wales and Scotland.
According to GREY2K USA Worldwide’s research, the nations where commercial greyhound racing continues include England, Ireland, Australia, Northern Ireland, the United States and Vietnam. Mexico’s sole track — the Caliente Hipodrome in Tijuana — ceased live racing in July 2024. Wales and New Zealand are in the process of enacting bans, and Scotland’s prohibition bill passed its first parliamentary stage in January 2026. The United Kingdom once operated more than seventy-seven licensed greyhound tracks. As of early 2026, eighteen remain.
That compression from a global sport to a regional one has happened within living memory. Understanding where racing persists, where it has ended and why, is necessary context for anyone following the sport in Britain — because the political and commercial pressures that closed tracks in Florida, shut down operations in Macau and prompted New Zealand’s ban are the same pressures that shape the debate at Westminster, in the Senedd and at Holyrood.
Countries Where Racing Continues
England is the centre of gravity for European greyhound racing. Its eighteen GBGB-licensed stadiums stage more fixtures than any other country in the region, with total starts exceeding 355,000 per year and betting turnover in the billions. The regulatory framework — GBGB oversight, UKAS accreditation, DEFRA statutory backing — is the most developed in the world, and the welfare data published since 2018 provides a transparency baseline that other racing nations have not matched. England’s position is complicated by the Welsh and Scottish bans happening in adjacent jurisdictions, but the UK Government has indicated it considers English greyhound racing to be adequately regulated and has no plans for prohibition.
Ireland is the breeding heartland. More than eighty per cent of greyhounds racing in Britain are Irish-bred, and Ireland’s domestic racing circuit — overseen by Rasaiocht Con Eireann — operates fifteen tracks across the Republic. Irish greyhound racing is state-supported through semi-state funding, giving it a financial underpinning that British racing, reliant on voluntary bookmaker contributions, does not enjoy. Northern Ireland’s two tracks operate under the Irish Coursing Club rather than the GBGB, creating a cross-border regulatory arrangement that the UK’s greyhound racing bans will not directly affect.
Australia is the largest greyhound racing market by wagering volume, though that volume has been declining — down fifteen per cent between 2022 and 2024, from A$8.83 billion to A$7.7 billion. The sport operates across multiple states with varying regulatory frameworks, and welfare controversies — including a 2015 industry memo estimating that as many as 17,000 healthy greyhounds were killed annually — have driven reforms and closures. The Australian Capital Territory banned greyhound racing in 2018, and Tasmania announced a phase-out. The remaining states continue to race, with New South Wales and Victoria accounting for the majority of activity.
The United States has largely abandoned greyhound racing. Following a wave of state-level bans — forty-four states now outlaw the sport — commercial racing is confined to West Virginia, where a single track continues to operate. Florida, once the epicentre of American dog racing with dozens of tracks, ended the sport via a 2018 ballot measure. The decline in the US was driven by a combination of animal welfare campaigning, competition from casino gambling and a generational shift in attitudes toward animal entertainment.
Vietnam hosts greyhound racing at a small number of venues, primarily oriented toward tourism and gambling. The scale is modest compared to the established markets and the regulatory framework is minimal by Western standards.
Recent and Pending Bans
New Zealand’s ban, announced by Minister for Racing Winston Peters in December 2024, provides for a phased closure over twenty months. The final race is scheduled no later than July 2026, with arrangements in place for the rehoming of an estimated 2,900 racing dogs. The ban was driven by welfare concerns and represents the first complete national prohibition by a country with a significant racing history.
Wales is advancing its Prohibition of Greyhound Racing (Wales) Bill, which would make it an offence to operate a track or organise racing within the country. The bill’s general principles were approved by 36 of 50 Senedd members in December 2025, and final passage appears assured. Implementation will close the Valley Greyhound Stadium, Wales’s sole licensed track.
Scotland’s Greyhound Racing (Offences) (Scotland) Bill passed Stage 1 in January 2026. No licensed racing currently takes place in Scotland — the last active venue, Thornton Stadium, suspended operations in March 2025 — but the legislation is designed to prevent the sport from returning. Eve Massie Bishop, Head of Campaigns and Media at OneKind, speaking on behalf of the Unbound the Greyhound coalition, framed the bill’s importance: “A nation that considers itself a leader in animal welfare must do better than to permit an industry that has cost the lives of 3,957 dogs since 2017. This isn’t ‘entertainment’, it’s cruelty.”
Mexico’s exit from the greyhound racing map occurred without legislative drama. The Caliente Hipodrome in Tijuana, the country’s sole track, simply stopped staging live races in July 2024. No formal ban was enacted; the commercial case for continuing had eroded to the point where closure was the default.
The Global Trajectory of the Sport
The pattern is consistent across geographies. Greyhound racing contracts through a sequence that runs from welfare scrutiny to media coverage to public opinion shift to political action to legislative ban. The sequence takes different amounts of time in different countries — decades in the US, years in New Zealand, and an ongoing process in the UK — but the direction has been the same everywhere.
The counterargument, advanced by the GBGB and by racing operators in Australia and Ireland, is that regulation can address the welfare concerns that drive prohibition campaigns. The improving injury and retirement data from British racing — a record-low injury rate of 1.07 per cent, a 94 per cent retirement rate, a near-elimination of economic euthanasia — is presented as evidence that a well-regulated sport can coexist with high welfare standards. Whether that evidence is persuasive enough to halt the legislative momentum depends on jurisdiction, political climate and the weight each society places on animal welfare relative to economic activity and sporting heritage.
For British greyhound racing specifically, the global context is both cautionary and clarifying. The sport cannot look at the closed tracks of Florida, the empty stadium in Macau or the pending bans in New Zealand and pretend the same pressures do not apply. Equally, it can point to its own regulatory infrastructure, its published data and its growing attendance at flagship events as evidence that the British model is different from the unregulated or poorly regulated industries that collapsed elsewhere. Whether “different” is enough is the question that Wales and Scotland have answered for their own territories. England has not yet been asked.