LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – I don’t bet on sports. Take a look at WDRB’s weekly “Against the Spread” college football feature and you’ll see a little bit of a reason why. I don’t even bet on the Kentucky Derby – not because I’m opposed to it or have some kind of ethical bias against it, but because I don’t want my own personal betting to affect how I’m watching or writing about a given race.
But for the state of Kentucky to continue to drag its feet on the subject of sports wagering is unconscionable. It perhaps is the biggest political head scratcher of my lifetime in this Commonwealth.
There are two reasons you can’t go to a sportsbook or, for that matter, pull a slot machine lever in Kentucky: 1). A puritanical streak that when examined more closely is difficult to understand; 2). Resentment against the horse racing industry and a refusal to give it any kind of assistance when it comes to new revenue.
I don’t know what goes into the first. Yes, Kentucky is part of the Bible Belt. I grew up Baptist. I get all of that. I also know that the state of Kentucky is known for two things: Bourbon and horse racing. Once those industries are your calling cards, the horse is pretty much out of the barn, if you’ll excuse the phrase. To deny it makes me think you’re drunk.
We subsist, in part, because people drink and gamble. That money contributes significantly to the state coffers, and in the form of the state lottery, to education in Kentucky. We not only derive revenue from those things, we derive an identity. It’s who we are as a state.
Last month, when the Kentucky Supreme Court issued a surprise ruling that the state’s “historical racing” slot machines did not constitute parimutuel wagering and are therefore not legal, it threatened to pull the plug on a $2 billion industry that is propping up thoroughbred racing in the state, and allowing it to compete with similar operations in other states.
The court suggested that legislative action is needed if slot machines are desired in Kentucky racetracks and elsewhere, and on that it is absolutely correct, whether you agree with its stance on historical racing or not.
The ruling upset a delicate balance, that allowed tracks to have a quiet monopoly on slot machines, while letting legislators condone expanded gaming without the political jeopardy that voting for it would bring.
Now, actual legislation will be required. The time has come for Kentucky legislators to remove the barriers to gaming in Kentucky, and in particular to sports gaming in Kentucky. Indiana and West Virginia have already done so. Tennessee has passed a bill. Ohio has a bill working its way through the legislature.
It wouldn’t be Kentucky, or course, if we weren’t late to the party – or skipped it altogether. We’ll travel to surrounding states to wager, but won’t keep the money at home.
I hear the arguments against it. The societal ills. You know what else are societal ills? Poverty. Lack of jobs. A government that is so cash-strapped it can’t fund its pension obligations. Schools that are run down and lack funding.
The notion that passing gambling legislation is selling the soul of our state is ridiculous. It was sold long ago, if you believe in that kind of thing.
And for those who don’t want to pass gambling legislation unless it is wide open and gives no concession to the horse racing industry, I hear you, but I don’t understand you.
States give preferential treatment to their signature industries all the time. Michigan fosters its auto industry. Florida considers its tourism. In Kentucky, we can use gaming to help horse racing while still funding a myriad of other causes.
Opponents will say legalized gaming isn't a cure-all, and they're right. They'll say it doesn't make that much difference from a revenue standpoint, while I'd point to the $2 billion from the historical racing slots and differ, in some cases they're right. What they can't answer is what source of revenue they would propose in the absence of what legalized gaming would bring? And they have no good answer as to why Kentucky shouldn't have all the tools that its neighbors have in terms of generating revenue.
At the same time, there needs to be compromise. Give Kentucky’s tracks a head start in establishing casinos, sports books, or anything else, but do so with an end date, if need be. Allow other casino interests to move in within 5, 7 or 10 years.
I don’t know how it looks. I do know that failure to act yet again will be a more serious kind of failure for this state.
Churchill Downs has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the city of Louisville. It deserves a chance to see that investment rewarded. Louisville needs the jobs. It needs the influx of tourism at a time when a boarded up downtown is desolate even on weekday afternoons when traffic used to be a headache.
I know, they’re going to argue that where gambling proliferates, crime, violence, addiction, human trafficking and poverty often follow. I don’t think it’s a news flash to remind anyone that we’re mired in all of those things right now, and major reasons are that poverty is widespread, education is lacking, and hope seems to have headed for the hills in some of our least-served communities.
Sports betting and casino gaming are not the only answer to those things. But they do constitute one answer to those things.
The clock is ticking. Kentucky has hit “snooze” for far too long. We have paid the price of gaming for too long without reaping our share of the rewards. It’s time to wake up, and at long last get this done.
The state Supreme Court is now forcing the legislature’s hand. Now is no time to fold.
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