FRANKFORT — Running for re-election two years ago, Gov. Paul Patton floated the idea of allowing casino gambling in Kentucky. It sank.

        The idea of riverboat gambling or slots at horse tracks met with such opposition in 1999 that some analysts said if Mr. Patton had faced a tougher challenger than little-known Republican Peppy Martin, who garnered just 22 percent of the vote, the governor may not have cruised to victory.

        So as the Kentucky General Assembly is poised to take up expanded gambling in Kentucky in its session starting Jan. 7, Mr. Patton is, at least for now, distancing himself from the subject.

        But Lt. Gov. Steve Henry is stoking the fire under the possibility of riverboat gambling.

        Mr. Patton has an almost “I told you so” attitude as the horse-racing industry — once an opponent of expanded gambling, but now on the bandwagon — continues to lose customers to riverboat casinos in Indiana and Illinois and to thoroughbred tracks in West Virginia that offer casino gambling.

        “I have in the past pointed out the fact that we are losing a lot of revenue to Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia,” Mr. Patton said Friday.

        “Nobody seems to be very much concerned about that. So we're really not engaged in that debate. I don't remember any member of the legislature talking to me about the subject.

        Turfway Park in Florence has seen the amount of money bet at the track drop by 43 percent since 1996, when the first of three riverboat casinos opened on the Ohio River in southeastern Indiana.

        Tracks including Churchill

        Downs in Louisville also have seen wagering and attendance fall since the casinos opened, most notably Caesars' riverboat, just west of Louisville, and the Bel- terra Riverboat Casino and Resort across the river from Warsaw, Ky., in Gallatin County.

        Casinos are also operating in Evansville, Ind., near Owenboro, and in Metropolis, Ill., across the Ohio River from Paducah.

        Casino gambling or slots at tracks have been considered in Ohio, but are not now legal. Legislatures in both Ohio and Pennsylvania are considering the issue.

        “The leadership of the General Assembly is going to have to address (the horse industry's reticence),” he said. “That's major public policy. This is not an issue we are going to get into until (members of the racing industry) get some legislative support.”

        Leaders of the state's thoroughbred racing industry are working to craft a bill that is likely to seek approval for some type of casino gambling — probably video terminals offering slots, poker, blackjack and other games — at horse racing tracks.

        “The horse industry is working on a consensus plan to take to the legislature and the governor,” Alex Waldrop, president of Churchill Downs in Louisville, said Friday through a spokesman.

        “That's a plan that will be both good for Kentucky and the horse industry,” Mr. Waldrop said.

        Meanwhile, the lieutenant governor said Friday he expects a bill to be filed that would allow riverboat gambling in Kentucky in or near communities facing competition from Indiana riverboats.

        “I know in Owensboro, Northern Kentucky and Paducah, legislators are tired of seeing their local dollars ... going across the river” to casinos, he said.

        “That's money that could basically pay for indigent medical care in Kentucky,” Mr. Henry said.

        Mr. Henry, who plans to seek the Democratic guber natorial nomination in 2003, said he is against “widespread gambling in the state.”

        “But I think if gambling is on the Ohio River it's a very different situation,” he said.
       

New direction

               Turfway Park in Florence and Keeneland in Lexington, which is one of Turfway's owners, are working with Churchill on the legislation.

        The racing industry now appears unified in pushing for expanded gambling, not only because of riverboats in Indiana and Illinois but also to deal with competition from West Virginia, where gambling is allowed at horse tracks.

        Mr. Patton said he thinks the tracks have a legitimate issue when it comes to competition.

        But he also pointed out the riverboats have been around for years and the racing industry knew gambling was coming to the Ohio River.

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