Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Clark County officials hoping to land a riverboat casino are worried
campaign talk among Kentucky's gubernatorial candidates about expanding
gambling in that state could harm the southeastern Indiana county's casino
dreams. With Kentucky's governor's race unfolding, gambling has emerged as
one of the top issues. Although all three candidates in Kentucky's May 22
Republican gubernatorial primary oppose expanding gambling, most of the
seven Democrats seeking their party's nod have said they would support a
referendum to allow freestanding casinos and slot machines at racetracks. If
the idea gets enough momentum, it could doom chances for a casino just
across the river in Clark County, where voters in November passed a
referendum to allow a casino, said gaming analyst Jason Pawlina. "There
won't be many gaming dollars left to go around if a Louisville, Ky.,
facility were to open before Clark County can get one going," said Pawlina,
of Christiansen Capital Advisers LLC, a gaming consultant for state
governments and private industry. Jeffersonville City Councilman John
Perkins, a leader of Clark County's casino efforts, said the idea of slots
and casinos in Louisville already has derailed a key economic-impact study
the local gaming commission wanted to take to the Indiana General Assembly.
Perkins said there were so many different possible outcomes - depending on
actions taken in Kentucky and Indiana - that the study was abandoned,
leaving the county without an important tool in lobbying legislators in
Indianapolis. Even without the Kentucky competition, Clark County's efforts
face a struggle in Indiana. Because all five riverboat licenses permitted
under Indiana law on the Ohio River are already taken, the county's best
hope is to persuade an existing boat to seek the Indiana Gaming Commission's
approval to move. That has fueled speculation about the potential for
transferring a license from Lake Michigan or from upriver at Rising Sun,
where the Grand Victoria Casino is for sale.

But some legislators argue that if Clark County wanted a riverboat, it
should have approved a referendum in the early 1990s, when counties were
vying for the original licenses. Instead, the county voted it down twice.

Patrick Neely, executive director of the Kentucky Equine Education Project,
said the group commissioned a study that showed 51 percent of the gaming
revenue at the five Ohio River casinos in Indiana and one in Illinois comes
from Kentucky residents.