FRANKFORT — Activists against efforts to expand gambling launched a new advocacy group, Stop Predatory Gambling Kentucky, on Wednesday.

At a news conference in the Capitol Rotunda in Frankfort, executive director Keren Henderson said the coalition includes Kentucky Youth Advocates, social workers, the Kentucky Council of Churches and others.

John-Mark Hack, the group's chairman, said that proposals to expand the lottery, add keno, and broaden instant racing appear to be going nowhere at the moment, but the group expects them to come up again as the state grapples with a billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, either in a special session or in 2014.

The group contends that such forms of gambling are predatory because they attract the poorest Kentuckians to the most addictive forms of wagering.

Janet Patton: (859) 231-3264. Twitter: @janetpattonhl.