The bill to amend the Constitution to allow casinos (seven of them) was filed yesterday. Kentucky is not a referendum state, but amendments to the Constitution must be accepted or rejected by the people. The trumpet call in Frankfort is “Let the people decide!” What is meant is “Let the DOLLARS decide!”
Bob Elliston, president of Turfway Park, indicated that the “tracks are willing to finance a campaign to pass it.” (Janet Patton, “Casino amendment introduced.” Lexington Herald-Leader, February 15, p. A-9) As proven during recent sessions they are also willing to finance legislators as well. Since Turfway is half owned by a Harrah’s (or Promus) subsidiary, we might suspect where the money will come from.
The person filing the amendment, Damon Thayer, a Republican, is a consultant to two Kentucky horse farms, who would benefit from increased breeder’s incentives. The minority floor manager in the Senate (who will line up the Democratic votes) is an employee of a bank owned by the co-owner of Thunder Ridge, a horse track in eastern Kentucky. To most of us these key players appear to have conflicts of interest. The Legislative Ethics Commission says there is no conflict of other members of the same class also benefit. So as long as four other tracks benefit, there is no conflict for an employee of the owner of one track to promote a bill that could benefit the track.
This bill is one paragraph. In 2008 the enabling legislation was 136 pages long. This time there is no enabling legislation, so voters are allowing the legislature a free hand to do whatever they want after the voters pass the amendment. Since we know how much political promises are worth, this is an awful amendment that could lead to terrible results, where conscientious legislators could be overwhelmed by the awakened greed of other legislators.
The two non-track casinos sound like a payoff to Bill Yung, a casino owner, who gave a million dollars to help elect Governor Beshear. The five racetracks provision means three tracks will be out in the cold with The Red Mile sure to be one of them since it has the misfortune of being within 60 miles (actually about 5) of Keeneland. This once premier harness track in the nation will slowly fade into memory. And do you really think any thoroughbred track will lose out to a harness track?
It is really hard to write a paragraph to make five tracks wealthy that pleases everyone. This amendment will turn those five tracks into West Virginia where most races are watched by 300 or so live patrons and the gambling is by people watching screens at other tracks. That’s saving horse racing?
