Kentucky
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by: Gene Koprowski.
Kentucky House Speaker Greg Stumbo made a first pitch for legislation that will allow more gambling at Kentucky horse tracks. Stumbo claims that he has support among conservative southern Baptists for his proposal to allow video gambling terminals at horse tracks.

"I am a southern Baptist, and I'm kind of proud of that," Stumbo told fellow lawmakers this week. "What I hear my preacher saying in my communities is that, 'well, you know, we can't really be for more gambling, but this isn't really an expansion of gambling as such.' ... We're not talking about expansion of gaming beyond where gaming is already taking place."

Martin Cothran, spokesman for the antigambling group Say No to Casinos, claimed he was stunned Stumbo claimed support from southern Baptists.

Stumbo proposes a measure that will allow video gambling terminals at seven of the state's eight horse tracks, a move that he said could generate up to $1.2 billion in taxable revenue for the state.





Speaking before lawmakers in a crowded committee room in the Capitol Annex, Stumbo said taxing that revenue could generate up to $340 million a year for the state to help jails with their increasing expenses, to pay for treatment for drug addicts, to clean up litter and to put more money into the state's public schools.

State Rep. Dennis Keene, D-Wilder, said the House Licensing and Occupations Committee will hear testimony from all sides of the gambling issue over the next two weeks. Keene, chairman of that committee, said he expects to call the legislation for a vote in February.

Keene said the state's financial problems make the gambling proposal easier to digest.




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