Churchill Downs Inc.’s chief financial officer said Monday that the
racetrack company would fare better in its efforts to pursue expanded
gambling in Kentucky if Democrats were in charge of state government. “I
don’t
think anything will happen, first of all, until there’s a change in the
gubernatorial situation,” said Mike Miller, the racetrack company’s
executive vice president and CFO. “The best thing that could happen for us
would be to have a totally Democratically controlled state, and I don’t see
much happening before then, to be honest with you. It’s not impossible.”
Miller’s comment came during a question-and-answer session at the Gaming
Investment Forum in Las Vegas. Miller and Mike Anderson, Churchill’s
corporate finance vice president, addressed the forum. The forum is part of
the American Gaming Association’s annual Global Gaming Expo. Kentucky’s
governor’s office and state Senate are led by Republicans. Bob Evans, the
company’s president and CEO, said Tuesday afternoon he was “kind of
surprised by the remarks,” adding that they were “certainly not my own
personal point of view or the company’s point of view, or the board of
directors point of view.” Evans said Miller was traveling and he hadn’t had
a chance to discuss the comments with him in person. “I assume it’s his
personal view because we didn’t authorize that as a company position,” Evans
said.

Evans, who took over in August from longtime CEO Tom Meeker, said he has not
met all of Kentucky’s legislators yet — but of those he has met, “some are
probably for the idea and some of them are against it. I don’t think it
breaks down by party line necessarily.”

Gov. Ernie Fletcher is in Japan. Fletcher spokeswoman Jodi Whitaker said the
governor’s position has not changed on the issue and declined to comment
further. Fletcher has said he personally opposes expanded gambling but would
not block the issue being submitted to Kentucky voters in a referendum.

State Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, said he wasn’t
offended by the comment.

It is not a “secret that gambling interests such as KEEP (the Kentucky
Equine Education Project, of which Churchill is a member), organizations
that want to expand gaming particularly at racetracks, have put tens of
thousands of dollars into state legislative races in order to try to
accomplish the takeover of the Kentucky state senate in particular for the
Democrats,” Williams said.

“He’s just being more candid than other people,” Williams said. “So I don’t
agree that’s the route Kentucky ought to take, but I don’t necessarily get
mad at people that don’t agree with me about it. You know, I mean it’s just
a different idea of what kind of Kentucky we want and what we think it would
do to Kentucky to have expanded gaming.”