FRANKFORT — A Northern Kentucky lawmaker will co-sponsor a bill expected to be filed next week to expand gambling.

        House Majority Caucus Chairman Jim Callahan, D-Wilder, said Tuesday that while he has not decided whether he will support the bill, he will sign on as one of its sponsors.

        “I'm not going to be the top signature,” Mr. Callahan said. “But my purpose in signing it is to open the floor debate and generate discussion once we finally get a bill.

        “I think we definitely need to take a look at (expanded gaming), but I still haven't decided if I'll support it.”

        Mr. Callahan is one of the few legislators — and the first from Northern Kentucky — to publicly commit to sponsoring what has been maybe the most anticipated piece of legislation in the 2002 General Assembly session.

        Next week, lawmakers and representatives of Kentucky's thoroughbred industry will introduce a bill that would allow the operation of video slot machines at eight Kentucky racetracks.

        The slots, know as Video Lottery Terminals, or VLTs, electronically replicate poker, blackjack, bingo, keno and other games of chance found in casinos.

        The industry says it needs gambling to compete against riverboat casinos in Indiana and Illinois and racetracks in West Virginia, Delaware and other states that offer VLTs and other games of chance.

        Gambling could also generate as much as $300 million a year for Kentucky, which is facing projected budget shortfalls for the next few years.

        Some legislators have been saying the tracks want to allow VLTs at the state's off-track betting parlors, where patrons bet on races simulcast through TV broadcasts.

        Mr. Callahan said he has been in meetings with the racing industry and has not heard that view raised by track representatives.

        Bob Elliston, president of Turfway Park in Florence, said Tuesday the racing industry's bill would include only VLTs at racetracks and at Sports Spectrum, a single off-track betting parlor operated by Churchill Downs in Louisville.

        But VLTs at the state's other parlors could eventually be a part of the legislation through an amendment offered by a lawmaker with an off-track betting parlor in his or her district, he said.

        “But the off-track facilities could come up as we get into the discussion and debate of the bill,” Mr. Elliston said.

        The nearest Kentucky off-track betting parlor to Cincinnati is in Maysville, about 60 miles east along the AA Highway.

        Mr. Callahan said legislators might agree to allow VLTs at betting parlors.

        But if there is a call for land-based casinos — which the racing industry opposes — then the bill would be in trouble, he said.

        “I'd be hard-pressed to support that,” Mr. Callahan said.

        Rep. Joe Fischer, R-Fort Thomas, said he believes the notion of VLTs at off-track betting parlors is being floated to win more support for expanding gambling.

        “The intention of that is to address the concerns of those who favor gambling but who think it would be unfair to limit access just to the racetracks,” Mr. Fischer said Tuesday.

        But it could also strengthen the opposition coming from churches and the conservative Family Foundation in Lexington, which are lobbying against the bill.

        “I want to see the debate about the social costs versus the benefit of the added revenue, so I'm withholding judgment for now,' Mr. Fischer said when asked if he would support the bill.

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