Kentucky Senate passes fix for slots-like gambling for horse industry. Will House follow?
As anticipated, the Kentucky Senate on Tuesday passed a bill by a vote of 22-15 to save a form of gambling at racetracks that the state Supreme Court has said isn’t legal.
The bill, which would define slots-like historical horse racing machines as parimutuel, will now moved to the Kentucky House, where opponents predict a stiffer fight.
House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, said Tuesday that the House Committee on Licensing, Occupations & Administrative Regulations could take it up as early as Wednesday morning. A hearing on SB120 is scheduled for 8 a.m.
“We think it deserves attention,” Osborne said. “So with weather coming in, not knowing what the situation’s going to be, we just decided to go ahead and get it in committee tomorrow morning and let them go ahead and have a hearing on it.”
He said there are still “active” conversations within the Republican caucus on the bill.
In the debate on Tuesday, some senators argued that Kentucky racetracks knew they games were on questionable legal footing when they began installing them, with the approval of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, almost a decade ago.
“This bill is a bailout,” said state Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Crofton, who opposed the bill. He said the horse industry is counting on lawmakers to be swayed by potential job losses to fix it with what he called an unconstitutional solution.
Bill sponsor state Sen. John Schickel, R-Union, said that without the legal fix, his Northern Kentucky district will lose Turfway Park racetrack and a newly constructed gambling facility, and that other tracks would close as well.
The potential societal harm from closed gambling parlors outweighs the potential harm from gambling, Schickel argued. “Is it really our role to tell poor people we need to protect them from themselves? I don’t think it is,” Schickel said.
The racing industry has poured millions into building gambling facilities that have generated millions for purses, for the tracks and for the state General Fund. One facility, the Red Mile in Lexington, closed after the Kentucky Supreme Court declined to rehear the case.
This story was originally published February 9, 2021 at 5:05 PM.
