KRISTI RUNYON: Kentucky has had horse racing and horse race gambling for more than 200 years. It has had a state lottery for nearly 20 years. Its neighboring states have casinos, but Kentucky does not yet, and that has provoked a fight.
The Kentucky horse racing industry wants casinos at the tracks, saying the industry and the state's economy need them. But many churches and others don't want them, largely based on moral and social justice grounds.
The racing industry made a strong push in the legislature and media this spring for a statewide vote on a constitutional amendment to allow casinos at racetracks and to use their revenues for education, social services, and racing purses. But the bill did not pass. Church and family groups led the opposition.
In the bluegrass of central Kentucky, Brereton Jones, a former governor, owns the 2,500- acre Airdrie Stud. He is the chairman of KEEP [Kentucky Equine Education Project], the major group supporting a casino vote. He says horse racing in Kentucky creates about 100,000 jobs and is a $4 billion industry, hurting now, says Jones, because of competition from other states.
BRERETON JONES (Chairman, Kentucky Equine Education Project): Take West Virginia, for example. That is not really much of a thoroughbred state. They have casinos now, and they take a portion of that casino income and put it into the purse structure at their racetracks. And so horses that race at Turfway Park, for example, which is a Kentucky track, leave that track to go to Mountaineer Track in West Virginia because the purses are in some instances double, and in some other instances almost triple what the same horse runs for at Turfway Park in Kentucky.RUNYON: The Reverend Nancy Jo Kemper is executive director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, an association of 11 denominations that has joined the Family Foundation and other groups to strongly oppose casinos.
Reverend NANCY JO KEMPER (Executive Director, Kentucky Council of Churches): We've been opposed since 1992 -- and I began here in 1991 -- to any form of expanded gambling, not so much on the grounds that gambling itself is wrong -- some of our denominations believe that, but others don't.For others, gambling is a morally neutral behavior. But our opposition comes because we believe that society as a whole is not served when you have a predatory industry that is built on illusion and deception, really, of the participant in the activity. It leads to the sort of undoing of our common democracy, where we all pay in an equal and equitable way for what we need as a society. And this instead says, "Let's fleece the suckers and get them to pay for what we aren't willing to pay for ourselves."FRANK PENN (Speaking on Phone): My main business in life is to raise the best horse I can.
RUNYON: Frank Penn owns 290 acres a few miles north of Lexington, where he raises thoroughbreds.
Mr. PENN: I think our industry, because of competition from other states, has to have purse enhancement. It goes right back to that. But my philosophy on gambling is that it's something you teach. I think is a choice that parents teach their children how to do that responsibly, just like you would drinking or drugs or alcohol or premarital sex or whatever. It's one of the things in society that you have to learn to deal with as an adult. And so I don't have any problem with that. I don't think it's the state's place to legislate morality.RUNYON: It's Saturday at the Lexington farmers' market. Billy Jenkins and his wife Maggie own a nearby farm.
MAGGIE JENKINS (Farmer and Owner, Silas Farm, Bourbon County, Kentucky): I just don't care for it, you know. I don't think we need to do that, you know. It leads to so many other things. If you've ever been to a casino, you'll see it. It's sad to see people in there. It's an addiction that you get, you know. It takes all their money, and it takes away from them, you know.
Mr. ELLIS: There's nobody twisting your arm making you gamble. I mean, it's a free choice. So the people that don't want to gamble, they shouldn't be holding it against people who want to gamble. So, I mean, I understand they have a religious right to disagree with it. But it still ought to be available, in my opinion. I mean, I don't have a religious problem with it.
Mr. JONES: So, is it more sinful to gamble on cards than it is horses, or more sinful to gamble on horses than cards? Well, we have the gambling right now. I mean, we're not proposing anything that would require one new gambler to exist in Kentucky. They're already doing it. This is inevitable. This is going to happen in Kentucky. The question is whether it happens now and we hurry up and get the money to help our own people, or whether it takes 10 years for it to happen. But it's going to happen.
