The Associated Press

FRANKFORT - At the post for the gubernatorial race, the candidates are hedging their gambling bets.

Three candidates for governor say the legislature should give Kentuckians a chance to approve expanded gambling. One said the constitutional amendment should include full-scale casinos.

"Restricting it to the racetracks is not the answer," Louisville businessman Bruce Lunsford said at a forum Wednesday night, referring to the proposal currently faltering in the General Assembly.

A committee action on Thursday effectively killed one gambling bill. One still remains, with a $400 million payoff for the strapped state, but is a long shot.

Another Democrat, House Speaker Jody Richards, and a Republican, state Rep. Steve Nunn, said they were for taking the issue of expanded gambling to the voters as a constitutional amendment. Nunn said after the forum, sponsored by the Kentucky Tourism Council, that he didn't favor proposing an amendment allowing full-scale casinos.

Richards, who didn't speak as forcefully as the other two for putting an amendment on the ballot, couldn't be reached for comment afterward.

Former Jefferson County Judge-executive Rebecca Jackson and state Sen. Virgil Moore said they opposed expansion of gambling. Jackson said it could be done by law, not a constitutional amendment, but said she couldn't support it because she had seen compulsive gamblers make families homeless.

Attorney General Ben Chandler said the issue was for voters to decide. But he declined to say whether he actually wanted lawmakers to offer voters an amendment on the subject.

Chandler said that candidates should keep their minds open on the subject, and that the state needs to protect the thoroughbred industry and "look at solutions" to the problem of hundreds of millions of dollars a year going to casinos in adjacent states.

The other major candidate, Republican U.S. Rep. Ernie Fletcher, was in Washington and did not attend the forum. He has said he could see no scenario under which he could support expanded gambling "at this time," said his campaign manager, Daniel Groves.