Tuesday, March 27, 2007

A bipartisan coalition proposed allowing three tourist-attracting casinos
and slot machines at dog and horse tracks as the House on Friday began
debating whether to expand gambling. The plan called for casinos in
Wyandotte, Sedgwick and Crawford or Cherokee counties and 2,200 slots
distributed among the Woodlands at Kansas City, Wichita Greyhound Park and
Camptown at Frontenac. Voters in the counties where slots or casinos would
be located would have to approve their operation. Casino operators would
have to agree to invest at least $225 million and pay an one-time,
nonrefundable fee of $25 million. The proposal calls for the state to get at
least 22 percent of the casino revenue and 40 percent of the slot revenue
from the tracks. The plan was offered as an amendment to a Senate-passed
bill that makes the Kansas Lottery a permanent fixture, a bill that has to
pass this year for the lottery to stay in business. Supporters say the state
eventually could realize $200 million a year from the casinos and slots,
though it would be two or three years before the casinos would be in
operation. The House also considered a proposed constitutional amendment to
allow privately owned casinos. The state constitution requires gambling
operations to be state owned and operated. Also up for debate was a measure
calling for a study of the impact of expanded gambling on the state.
Although the gambling issue has been around for more than a decade, the
House last debated it in 2003, when it passed a bill and sent it to the
Senate, where it died. Last year, the Senate failed to pass a gambling bill
and said it wouldn't take up the issue again until the House sent it a bill.
Attaching a gambling measure to a Senate bill means that chamber can quickly
accept what the House did or resolve the issue in a House-Senate negotiating
committee. Also, legislators must pass a bill this year to continue lottery
ticket sales after June 30. The lottery began operating in 1987, and state
law required legislators to vote on keeping it alive in 1990, 1995 and 2001.

The push to force action on gambling began Wednesday morning when a motion
was made in the House to put another Senate bill that could become a
gambling bill into position for debate Thursday. The motion was withdrawn
after the House Federal and State Affairs Committee sent the chamber the
lottery bill and it was scheduled for debate.

It was an unusual move and viewed by many as a snub to the committee that
had been conducting hearings this month on various gambling bills. Some
lawmakers felt the committee was moving too slowly.