Editor’s Note: The following article represents the views of the author.
Gambling in Kentucky has a rich history. A rich legal history.
That’s not to say there hasn’t been and isn’t a thriving “not so legal” Kentucky gambling industry. Sure we have legal horse racing, but pretty much everything else is painted in shades of gray.
By gray, I am specifically referring to the so-called “gray” slot machines that are proliferating the state. Of course, the state has had legal slot machines for several years in the form of the historical horse racing (HHR) games featured at locations such as Lexington’s Red Mile.
Until they weren’t. Then, thanks to the Kentucky General Assembly, suddenly they were again. Having personally played these machines (my late mother loved to gamble), I can say that they are slot machines. There’s no way around that fact.
However, HHR machines are legal, and the gray machines are not.
Why are gray gambling machines illegal in Kentucky?
Gray slot machines are illegal based on the simple fact that they don’t include the short video clip that makes the HHR games legal. And they don’t benefit the horse racing industry.
Additionally, they cut into the Kentucky Lottery proceeds, which help fund education in the state, and was the main selling point in Kentucky’s quest to get a state lottery.
But do the police consider these gray machines illegal? Not if you ask the Fraternal Order of Police, who coincidentally or not benefit from the gray machines.
Does this all sound foreign? Like new news? It should.
Most people that aren’t hardcore gamers don’t even know about these legal, maybe illegal machines. The debate between illegal and legal has been somewhat illuminated thanks to stories by Janet Patton and Bill Estep, reporters for the Lexington Herald Leader.
Gray gambling machine advocates want to follow in HHR footsteps
People who consider the gray games illegal, coincidentally or not, are the same folks who considered the historical horse racing games as illegal. Ironically, they also managed to get the HHR games brought back to life after they were briefly declared illegal.
Confused yet? You should be. Who isn’t confused is Senate Floor Leader and former horse racing industry insider Damon Thayer. Thayer said all along that historical racing machines were legal.
Then he helped to make them legal. Thayer split hairs between what is considered a “game of chance versus a game of skill.” Ostensibly because the HHR machines featured a short video clip from a past horse race, which has absolutely nothing to do with the slot aspect of the game.
After Thayer and his camp laid the groundwork for the HHR machines to be legal, now the gray machine people want the same opportunity. The question is after the horse people greased the legislators with donations, can the gray advocates do the same?
After all, the HHR machines are at racing tracks. Get people in the door of a horse race track, and even if there isn’t racing taking place, the track makes money.
Ever been to the Red Mile on a Saturday night out of season? I have. The place is packed. That’s the money going into the horse racing industry’s pockets.
The gray machines aren’t located at horse tracks. See where this is going?
The solution is black and white: Legalize the gray gambling machines
At the end of the day, it doesn’t have to be complicated. Yes, the horse people want their little niche with slots at the race tracks. Don’t be misled, these are slot machines, nothing else.
But the gray machines have absolutely no ties to actual horse racing. So who cares?
The gray machines exist in somewhat seedier places, such as truck stops, small-town convenience stores and shady back rooms. Wouldn’t it benefit everyone to bring all of this out into the light?
People are going to gamble in KY. Legal or not, folks like their action, almost as much as they like a cold beer or stiff drink with it. We don’t drive alcohol into shady alleys and back rooms, so it’s time to bring gambling out of those places as well.
The solution? Legalize all of it, including KY online sports betting, tax it appropriately, designate a portion to gambling addiction help programs and education, and let’s all move on with our lives and have a good time.
