Kentucky casino supporters are increasingly silent

Courier Journal – Support for a constitutional amendment on casino gambling seems to be waning, even among those people who are for it. Champions of casino gambling aren’t saying much, although the problem is unlikely to vanish completely from debate without being placed on the ballot. The explanations are varied:

• More racetracks are embracing the slot-like Instant Racing game instead to casinos. The Kentucky Equine Education Project, once the leader of the pony industry’s pro-casino effort, spending about $1.4 million in the course of the 2006 legislative session alone, says it's occupied with other issues — though it remains pro-casino under circumstances that favor the pony industry. Politicians say the disagreements throughout the horse industry are a larger impediment than politics.

• Political issues remain, corresponding to a $100,000 contribution by Churchill Downs Inc. to a political action committee whose goal is to elect conservatives in legislative races q4. House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, has said his previously announced plans to make a casino amendment House Bill 1 are actually in question.

• The casino market is showing signs of saturation as casinos in New Jersey close, and others in Indiana and Ohio compete for players.

“The oversaturation of casino gambling within the country combined with reluctance (of various) segments within the horse industry to embrace gaming combine to make its chances less likely and no more urgent,” said Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown. He sponsored considered one of Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear’s efforts in 2012 to get a casino amendment at the ballot.

Thayer said he doesn’t know what it might take for the problem to get momentum someday. “It seems that many parts of the pony industry have stabilized, particularly at the breeding and sales side.”

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