BY GREGORY A. HALL and MARIE McCAIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FLORENCE -- Turfway Park owner Jerry Carroll says the addition of a third riverboat casino in the Tristate may not hurt his horse track's bottom line as the first two boats have.
The real significance of the third riverboat, approved last week by the Indiana Gaming Commission for Vevay in Switzerland County, may be the name over the door.
Hollywood Park, the thoroughbred track in southern California, is a partner in the riverboat casino.
With the addition of the Vevay riverboat, another track will be benefiting from the casinos that some Kentucky tracks say severely threaten their well-being.
The two Kentucky tracks sounding the warnings, Turfway and Churchill Downs, had both teamed with casino companies in ventures that weren't successful.
Turfway spokesman Damon Thayer said there's no point in looking back on what hasn't materialized.
"You can't begrudge Hollywood Park for trying to expand their product mix," he said. "They've got to do what they feel is right to make a profit, and obviously there's an unbelievable profit margin in casinos."
Mr. Carroll wants the Kentucky's legislature to add other forms of gambling at tracks, like video lottery terminals. The terminals are slot machines tied to the state lottery system.
The need is evident, he says.
"This unbelievable armada of riverboats says it on their own," he said Monday.
"Indiana is telling Ohio and Kentucky that as long as you guys sit on your hands, we'll put in as many boats as possible. Having four boats within a 100-mile area, from Louisville to Rising Sun, tells us the market is very, very good."
Since Indiana began riverboat gaming, Turfway Park profits have fallen by about 33 percent.
But Mr. Carroll doubted that his bottom line would drop much lower with a fifth Indiana riverboat.
"It's just another casino. Once you have one or two, another one doesn't matter," he said.
Greater Cincinnati's other thoroughbred track, River Downs, says the casinos aren't hurting its operations.
River Downs has had almost $82.1 million bet this year, which is up almost $10.3 million from last year, spokesman John Engelhardt said.
An additional casino, Mr. Engelhardt said, will bring more gamblers to the area that River Downs can try to attract.
"As long as they bring the people in, we want to bring them out to River Downs and show them a good time," he said.
The real competition, he said, isn't the boats. It's among the race tracks.
About the time the riverboats began operating, an Ohio law took effect that allows track patrons to bet on races from other tracks. Kentucky tracks, like Turfway, had been simulcasting since the late 1980s.
Mr. Thayer said the threat from casinos is real.
"We are all in competition with them," he said.
He explained River Downs' increase as a result of being able to simulcast.
"When you go from not being able to simulcast to being able to simulcast, your numbers should go up," Mr. Thayer said. "And theirs did, rightly so."
The true impact of the casinos may be tested when Caesars' Glory of Rome riverboat opens in November near Louisville, the home of Churchill Downs.
Kentucky Senate President Larry Saunders, a Louisville Democrat, says he expects relief for the racing industry to be considered by the General Assembly when it meets again in 2000.
"It continues to be a perceived problem that they believe will only get worse as time goes along," he said. As more evidence of that is gathered, an expansion of gaming becomes more likely, he said.
"I don't think there's any question that it is going to hurt in the long run," he said.
House Majority Leader Jim Callahan, D-Wilder, isn't as sure something will be taken up.
First, he said, he expects a new riverboat will lead to competition for the same gamblers among the casinos.
Second, he expects the boats won't hurt Churchill Downs as badly as Turfway because Churchill has no competing racetrack across the river as River Downs does.
Also, video lottery terminals are a touchy issue, he said, because stores that sell regular lottery tickets would want them, too. "How do you tell one group of people "yes' and another group of people "no,' " he said.
That means any other expansion of gaming most likely would come through a popular vote in a constitutional amendment, he said. That probably won't happen unless the tracks are hurt to the point of being insolvent.
"I think we're talking a long ways away from that," he said.
