Senate leader not sure Senate will vote on gambling bill

John Hanna

Monday, April 17, 2000 | 2:54 a.m.

TOPEKA, Kan. - The Senate may not take up a bill to allow slot machines at dog and horse tracks before legislators adjourn for the year, Majority Leader Tim Emert said Monday.

Emert, who sets the Senate's debate calendar, said he is not sure he will schedule a vote on the bill, which has been endorsed by the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee.

The Legislature is scheduled to reconvene April 26, following its traditional 2half -week spring break. Its leaders set aside four days for wrapping up the year's business.

Emert says he doesn't sense growing support for the gambling legislation among his colleagues. In fact, he said many of them, believing it would fail, "don't want to do it."

"It's just kind of sitting there," said Emert, R-Independence.

The bill would permit slots and other electronic gambling machines at Wichita Greyhound Park; The Woodlands in Kansas City, and Camptown Greyhound Park, north of Pittsburg. Voters in each of their home counties must approve the new gambling first, however.

Supporters have described it as a way to recapture gambling dollars now being spent by Kansans at casinos in Kansas City, Mo., and on four Indian reservations in northeast Kansas.

The tribes have concerns about the bill and believe it could hurt their businesses, but haven't taken a public stance on it. The job of trying to defeat it has been left to groups and legislators who oppose more gambling.

The Senate rejected a similar bill last year, 13-27.

Still, Brad Smoot, a lobbyist for Kansas Racing, the company that operates The Woodlands, said: "I think it still has a chance, and I'm optimistic."

Supporters believe the bill would generate $260 million in annual revenues, after prizes are paid out to players of the slot machines and other electronic gambling machines.

Smoot noted that this year's bill would give 20 percent of the revenues to the state for education programs. Under supporters' projections, Kansas would receive $52 million a year.

Under last year's bill, the figure would have been 14 percent, and the state would have had to take regulatory expenses out of its share. This year's bill sets aside an extra 1 percent of the revenues to cover regulatory costs.

"We have a better bill than we had last year," Smoot said.

Emert said he doesn't sense that the bill has enough support to win approval in the Senate.

"There are just a lot of votes against it," he said.