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No Casino Games In Kentucky

March 30, 2008

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear announced that the casino initiative he was backing to bring in slot machines, roulette wheels, and blackjack tables into the states is dead.  Coming a week after Massachusetts announced the rejection of their own casino bill, the decision is now added to defeats from Ohio and Nebraska that occurred two years ago, signifying a slowing of casinos after a period of expansion that has lasted for twenty years.

The trend of casinos and gambling throughout the country seems to be on the downswing and many lawmakers will not even consider debating the bills when they hit the legislature floor.  Kentucky lawmakers debated it for three months, but decided not to approve the bill.  The state will have their flagging horse racing betting, but there have been concerns over how the tracks and industry will continue to be funded.

Representatives of the American Gaming Association do not thing there is a trend developing as the rejections came from the lawmakers and not the general public.  They believe that the public is for the casinos and resorts, and the jobs and revenues they would have brought in.  With the American economy in such a poor shape, these jobs would’ve been extremely welcome.  So far thirty-seven of America’s fifty states have some form of commercial gaming or horse racing in them.  Most of them were built during the 1990s.

Casinos haven’t lost completely over the last few years.  Pennsylvania, Florida, and Kansas approved legalized gaming over the last two years and the state of Maryland votes on whether or not to allow casinos in the state in November of 2008. Even though antigambling advocates feel that the states who have rejected the bills are attempting to protect their citizens from the ‘social ills, crime, bankruptcy and divorce’ that has been associated with gambling, gambling advocates do not feel that four state rejections over three years is a developing trend and that people will continue to advocate the expansion.

Beshear is not giving up on his efforts to bring casinos into the state.  He feels that the cash-strapped state could benefit from the approximate $600 million in revenue and taxes the casinos would bring in.  Citizens are already spending more than $1 billion in gambling by going to casinos in the neighbouring states of Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and West Virginia.  While anti-gambling advocates will always be there trying to shoot down any bills or proposals that are made, the final choice should be left up to the citizens of the states in question.