Will Racinos Save the Horse Industry in Kentucky Like They Did in Indiana?
From the Courier-Journal:
The owners of the casinos at the state's two horse tracks said Monday that lawmakers need to cut their taxes and rewrite the rules under which they launched their gambling ventures, or the racinos may not survive.
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The General Assembly in 2007 authorized the two tracks to install up to 2,000 slot machines each -- but only if they paid $250 million licensing fees and invested $100 million each in new gaming facilities.
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The tracks took the deals and built casinos, although they grumbled even then that the $250 million fee was too high.
Now that lawmakers and racino officials can evaluate actual numbers, it's obvious the state's business model won't work, said Jim Brown, general manager of Hoosier Park. He said racinos pay 12 cents more of every dollar in taxes and mandatory payments than riverboat casinos do, largely because of payments to the horsemen.
But lawmakers passed the racino legislation in part to help save the horse racing industry, said the study committee's co-chairman, Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville. Track operators touted the positive impact the slot machines would have on horse racing purses when they were pursuing the racino law, he said. Now, they see those payments as liabilities.
Oh, we get it. Supporting the horse industry is a burden to operating the slot machines...
