Historical horse racing bill advanced by Kentucky senate committee

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A Kentucky state senate committee on Thursday overwhelmingly voted to advance a bill that would change the definition of “pari-mutuel wagering" in the state to theoretically allow for the operation of so-called “historical horse racing machines.”

The Kentucky State Senate Licensing and Occupations Committee voted unanimously to send the bill to the Senate, the first step in what supporters of the devices hope will be passage in the state’s two legislative chambers. The chairman of the committee, Sen. John Schickel, a Republican representing a district that includes Churchill Downs-owned Turfway Park, is the sponsor of the bill, and one of the committee’s members is Sen. Damon Thayer, the Senate Majority Leader, who is one of the racing industry’s most ardent supporters in the legislature.

The bill was advanced after a one-hour hearing in which supporters of the bill touted the impact of the devices on Kentucky’s racing industry. Opposition to the bill was mounted by The Family Foundation of Kentucky, a religious conservative group that spearheaded legal challenges to the devices over the past eight years.

The legislation has become the singular priority of the state racing industry due to a Supreme Court ruling in September of last year that disputed the legality of a type of the machine under the state’s definition of “pari-mutuel wagering.” The bill modifies the state’s definition to include horse races that have been “previously run.”

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Historical horse racing machines use races that have already been run to generate random numbers determining payouts to players. Although the devices give the player the option to watch the last seconds of a race in a small screen, their operations closely remember slot machines.

The racing industry has mounted an aggressive public-relations and lobbying campaign to build support for the devices, contending that the machines have re-invigorated a stagnant industry since they were first installed in 2012 and that they have allowed Kentucky tracks to compete with casino-subsidized racetracks in other states. The machines were first approved by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission in 2010.

“I’ve seen first-hand the renaissance of our horse industry over the past 10 years,” said Schickel, after three supporters of the bill, including trainer Tom Drury, gave testimony. “It’s been amazing.”

Representatives of the Family Foundation contended that the legislature cannot approve the devices without amending the state’s constitution, an arduous process that would also include a public referendum. Martin Cothran, a spokesperson for the Family Foundation, called the legislation’s expansion of the definition of legal wagering “preposterous,” and he said that the devices are “harmful to this state culturally, constitutionally, and economically.”

Thayer, who is closely aligned with the conservative movement in Kentucky, pushed back aggressively on the Family Foundation’s testimony, at one point calling the group the “so-called Family Foundation” when arguing that the bill would benefit “families across the commonwealth” by preserving horse racing jobs.

“I’ve never seen testimony that insulted an entire industry than what I have heard here today,” Thayer said.

The legislation faces a heavier lift in the two state legislative chambers, where Republicans hold a supermajority in both houses. Sen. Reginald Thomas, a Democrat from Lexington, voted for the bill to be advanced, while hinting that the bill might create headaches for some conservatives in the legislature.

“I think this matter deserves to come to the Senate vote and have all members vote on this,” Thomas said.