The issue of whether instant racing or historical horse racing is legal in Kentucky, a dispute that’s been making its way up and down the court system for a decade, will be addressed again on Friday.
That’s when the Kentucky Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on a case where the top question is whether historical horse racing, played on a machine that resembles a slot machine, is pari-mutuel wagering on horse racing and therefore permitted by state law.
There is also a separation of powers issue, according to the Family Foundation, who maintains then-Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, and father of present Gov. Andy Beshear, bypassed the legislative process when the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission gave the go-ahead to historical horse racing in 2010.
Family Foundation Attorney Stan Cave says the Exacta System, which is expected to be argued before the justices, is only one of several gaming systems that are being used for that purpose.
This is the second time the issue will go before the justices. Cave says the first time, in 2014, only decided part of the case, “But didn’t decide whether the actual operations of these games are pari-mutuel wagering.”
There are several thousand historical racing-slot like machines that have been installed at racetrack-owned venues around the Commonwealth of Kentucky since about 2011.
In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled that the Racing Commission had the legal authority to license pari-mutuel wagering on historical horse racing. However, the court sent the case back to the trial court to determine whether instant racing constitutes the unauthorized expansion of gambling in violation of Kentucky law. The Franklin Circuit court ruled that the instant racing machines, though they looked and operated in many ways like slot machines nevertheless met the definition of pari-mutuel wagering and were thus authorized under Kentucky law.
Beshear said he believes instant racing is constitutional. “It has allowed us to be competitive with some other states that are still taking hundreds of millions of Kentucky’s entertainment dollars and spent it on their roads and health care. It has helped shore up the horse industry that was facing challenging times before it. I think we need it as a state to be ruled Constitutional.”
The arguments are scheduled for 10 a.m. ET on Friday. While the courtroom will have limited seating due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it will be live-streamed by Kentucky Educational Television at https://www.ket.org/live/supremecourt/.
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Written by Tom Latek. Cross-posted from Kentucky Today.