Thursday, May 13, 1999
Patton clarifies casinos stance
Ky. governor envisions them as part of hotels
BY PATRICK CROWLEY and JANE PRENDERGAST
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FRANKFORT — Northern Kentucky could be a prime beneficiary if Gov. Paul Patton's proposal to put casinos in hotels near convention centers comes true.
If the governor's controversial suggestions win approval, Covington would be a likely spot for a new casino — it's the home of the new Northern Kentucky Convention Center and several nearby hotels as well as being a gateway into the state and close to Cincinnati.
Casinos that are part of hotels — as opposed to free-standing casinos found in places like Las Vegas — would enhance the convention business in Northern Kentucky and across the state, Mr. Patton told the Enquirer during an interview Wednesday in his State Capitol office.
Mr. Patton took pains to clarify his position because many in the state believe he advocates larger, “land-based” casinos.
“(Casino gambling) would make Kentucky a more desirable place for a convention because it would provide an additional, convenient, recreational activity for the conventioneers that wanted to” gamble, Mr. Patton said.
“I'm not talking about big designation casinos,” Mr. Patton said. “It's not going to work (in Kentucky), it's not going to happen.”
Instead, Mr. Patton said the casinos would be part of hotels, similar to how casinos are built and operated in some parts of the Caribbean and Europe.
“Northern Kentucky is trying to enhance its convention trade,” Mr. Patton said.
“That's a big market and there are certainly a lot of people who like to game as demonstrated by Turfway Park” and the popularity of the riverboat casinos in southern Indiana, which are among the busiest and most lucrative in the country for the gaming industry.
Tom Cardonio, president of the Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the group hasn't yet met to discuss what, if any, strategy it will pursue on the issue. When members do talk about it, he said, they won't get involved in any of the morality aspects of the debate, but will stick purely to the fact that casinos would make good business sense for convention center areas.
“Either people are going to get in the car and drive to Indiana or they're going to stay here. It's cut-and-dried. Economically, it makes great sense.”
Any money a casino would pump into the convention center and hotel business would also spill over into any nearby restaurants or shops, he said, thereby spreading the economic gain around even more.
Some form of gambling has been pushed in Kentucky over the last several years by some in the thoroughbred industry — including former Turfway Park owner Jerry Carroll — as a way to compete with riverboat casinos in Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.
But Mr. Patton has taken the debate to a new level over the past two weeks, suggesting that casinos at hotels and video gambling terminals at race tracks would not only provide money for the thoroughbred industry but also for environmental projects and urban renewal.
The issue will be one of the hottest topics state lawmakers are expected to tackle when the Kentucky General Assembly meets in January for its biannual legislative session.
Mr. Patton said Wednesday he envisions a proposed constitutional amendment allowing gambling to be discussed by lawmakers during the session. If the amendment is put on the ballot by the legislature and passed by the people, voters in local communities would then be allowed to vote of if they want gambling in their cities and counties, he said.
Mr. Patton's comments Wednesday weren't exactly the news horse tracks such as Turfway Park were hoping to hear. The governor has said some of the revenue from casinos could be directed to the horse racing industry, but many track officials think casinos anywhere but at the tracks would only attract more bettors away from the already struggling horse races.
Mr. Carroll, Turfway's owner until this winter, said casinos elsewhere in the state would be seriously detrimental to the tracks.
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