Thu, Feb 11, 2021
By BRUCE SCHREINER (Associated Press)
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky's horse industry won a high-stakes showdown Thursday when lawmakers gave final passage to a bill aimed at securing the legal status of wagering on historical racing machines.
The House voted 55-38 to send the measure to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who endorsed the bill intended to preserve a lucrative revenue source tapped into by the state's racetracks.
The slots-style ventures proliferated in the past decade and tracks reinvested some of the revenue to make Kentucky's horse racing circuit more competitive with casino-backed tracks in other states.
But historical horse racing operations were jeopardized by a court ruling last year.
The bill seeks to fix flaws that led Kentucky's Supreme Court to rule at least some forms of wagering on historical horse racing don't meet pari-mutuel wagering standards. The measure would insert such operations into the definition of pari-mutuel wagering.
Historical racing machines allow people to bet on randomly generated, past horse races. The games typically show video of condensed horse races. The state's racing industry pumped millions of dollars into developing historical horse racing parlors, and bettors in Kentucky wagered more than $2 billion on the machines in the past fiscal year.
During the nearly three-hour House debate, Republican Rep. Matthew Koch said historical racing has been "a shot in the arm for this industry." The bill's supporters warned that the loss of that revenue would jeopardize horse-sector jobs and hurt many businesses that service the equine sector.
The debate turned emotional at times, as supporters talked about the horse industry's deep roots and economic importance in Kentucky. Meanwhile, opponents objected to the bill on moral grounds.
Critics denounced the bill a bailout for tracks that forged ahead with opening historical wagering parlors despite questions about the legality of the machines. They portrayed the issue as a deep-pocketed racing industry reaping profits off people lured to gamble on the machines.
"It will continue to increase heartache and tragedy and inflict a lot of suffering and pain upon people if we pass this bill," said Republican Rep. David Hale.
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The legislation is Senate Bill 120.
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