MYTHICAL KY SLOTS ARMADA: 15 YEARS LATER
Friday, February 13th, 2009It’s now been 15 years since James E. (Ted) Bassett III, then the president of Keenelend, declared before a legislative committee in Kentucky’s state capitol that the commonwealth’s signature industry, Thoroughbred racing and breeding, was “not going to cave in to the hypothetical threat of a mythical armada cruising down the Ohio from Ashland to Paducah under the disguise of a legislative act that has yet to be passed in most of our neighboring states.”
Bassett was talking about the emergence of what then were just a few floating casinos in Illinois and the possibility of additional boats in Indiana; 1994 was only the beginning of an era that has seen an unprecedented explosion in gambling in states from New Mexico to New York, from Florida to Louisiana, from Mississippi to West Virginia, and from Michigan to Pennsylvania.
So much has changed in 15 years that even Bassett’s wise, old head must be spinning. In fact, his successor at Keeneland, Nick Nicholson, is now one of the main proponents to get Kentucky’s gambling playing fields level with those of other states. The mythical armada surrounding Kentucky has grown to include a massive floating arsenal of riverboats carrying blackjack and craps tables, and hundreds of thousands of slot machines at land-based compounds.
I understand completely what Bassett was saying. He hated the thought Kentucky’s racing industry would have to cave in to the pressures created by the dominos falling around him in other states. Betting on a horse and throwing money into slot machines are two forms of gambling, to be sure, but one involves an intellectual challenge, an agriculture based business, and a beautiful sport that at times can capture the interest and imagination of an entire nation. The other is a mindless activity that is virtually guaranteed to separate the player from his money: gradually, tantalizingly, but, ultimately, relentlessly.
Sadly, I hate to admit, the former – pari-mutuel wagering on horses – must depend to some degree on the latter – Video Lottery Terminals or slot machines – to survive.
The debate has gone on long enough in Kentucky. Fifteen years! There probably isn’t a resident in Kentucky who can’t jump in his car and within two hours be feeding a slot machine in a neighboring state. Thousands of Kentuckians are doing just that, every day, and it’s costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars each year in lost revenue. Worse, it’s threatening the very future of Kentucky’s largest and most important industry: the Thoroughbred.
I wrote earlier this week that slots revenue may in the long run be fool’s gold in many states, and I stand by that statement. Any non-essential industry that relies on subsidies to exist is skating on thin ice, because those subsidies can very well be taken away with the slash of a legislator’s pen. The racing and breeding industries in most American states would have to be put into that “non-essential” category. But Kentucky is different. Take away the horse farms and the nearly 100,000 jobs they have created, and you will have a state plunged into a deep, deep economic recession. No other state is so dependent on this major agribusiness. Furthermore, Kentucky’s identity to the rest of the world is so tied to horses that it would forever be changed.
It’s therefore essential that legislators, from Ashland to Hopkinsville, from Paducah to Williamsburg, understand that the armada is no longer mythical, that the assault is ongoing, and that the battle is in serious danger of being lost.
This subject has been debated, not just in the halls of Frankfort and the breeding sheds of Central Kentucky, but on the national airwaves. On Wednesday of this week and next week, Steve Byk’s At the Races radio show on Sirius channel 126 (4-7 p.m. Eastern) is devoting the entire three hours to the issue, “Kentucky in Crisis.” Byk’s guests this week were John Sikura of Hill ‘n’ Dale farm, Kentucky state Sen. Damon Thayer, Eclipse Award-winning writer Billy Read and trainer Chuck Simon.
Click here to listen to Wednesday’s enlightening “Kentucky in Crisis” program.
I’ll be on next Wednesday’s program, following scheduled appearances by Greg Stumbo, the Kentucky House Speaker whose VLT legislation cleared a House committee yesterday, lobbyist Gene McLean and former Kentucky Gov. Brereton Jones, the owner of Airdrie Stud.
VLTs or slot machines cannot be racing’s salvation. The sport is failing, not just in Kentucky but throughout the United States, because it has failed to adequately address a number of serious challenges. The racing product needs attention, and its business model is broken both on a local and national level, and simply putting additional money into purses is not going to fix the product on its own. It will, however, give the industry an opportunity to invest in its own future, something it has not been able to do since the mythical armada transformed into a very real threat to the survival of Kentucky’s most important industry.
Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report
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