Andy Beshear is betting on expanded gaming to offer a solution to Kentucky’s budget problems.
The Democratic candidate for governor has said that allowing casinos and other additional forms of betting would open a new revenue stream to fund pensions. But Gov. Matt Bevin says casinos are “a sucker’s bet” and wouldn’t generate the revenue that the attorney general claims they would.
Beshear says Kentucky’s neighboring states are benefiting from expanded gaming at Kentucky’s expense. His plan for expanded gaming says “Kentucky loses over $500 million in tax revenue a year to neighboring states, and less than 10 casinos could generate over $1.7 billion in economic activity in their first year.”
Beshear’s estimates are based on a 2011 study by Spectrum Gaming Group, a nonpartisan consultancy that provides research about gaming.
Despite being a key part of Beshear’s campaign, there is doubt that expanded gaming would pass in the state. His father, then-Gov. Steve Beshear, was unable to get it through a Democrat-controlled House, and now both chambers of the legislature have Republican majorities.
Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer of Georgetown and Senate President Robert Stivers of Manchester said in mid-October that any bill proposing casino gambling would be “dead on arrival.” The Republicans added, “There is absolutely no chance any such effort would pass the Senate in an upcoming session.”
In 2012, Thayer sponsored a ballot measure that would have authorized casino gambling in Kentucky. The bill did not get out of the Senate.
Bevin said in a debate on KET Oct. 28 that “there is no political willpower” to pass expanded gaming, but Senate Demoratic Leader Morgan McGarvey of Louisville noted “There’s bipartisan support for expanded gaming in Kentucky. Expanding gaming won’t fix all of Kentucky’s problems, but it would be a good start. And we should let the voters vote on whether they want it in 2020.”
Bevin says there are societal costs to casino gambling. In July, he told WKDZ-FM in Cadiz, “Every night somewhere in America, somebody takes their life in a casino because they’ve wasted the last semblance of dignity and hope that they had. Families are ruined. Lives are ruined.”
Beshear said in the Oct. 28 debate that Bevin’s claim was fabricated, but Bevin stood by his words Monday.
“In the city of Las Vegas alone, you’ll see that every other night somebody takes their life in a hotel,” said Bevin. “These are in casinos. This is a fact.”
Bevin has not presented documentation of that. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2017 Nevada’s statewide suicide rate was 10th in the nation. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported in 2019 that a team of researchers “analyzed Nevada’s suicide data in 2008 and found that living in or visiting Las Vegas correlated with a higher suicide risk compared with other urban areas,” but researchers could not establish a cause-and-effect relationship. The story said more recent numbers show that suicide rates in rural Nevada have surpassed those in Clark County, the home of Las Vegas.
Beshear says he would support resources for people suffering from gambling addiction.
“None of us want anyone to end up being desolate,” he said in the Oct. 28 debate.
A 2013 Courier-Journal Bluegrass Poll found that 61 percent of Kentuckians would support a constitutional amendment to allow casino gambling in Kentucky.
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Written by Noah Oldham. Cross-posted from the State Journal.