Kennel owners take in millions thanks to electronic gambling

Sunday, March 19, 2000 | 10:17 a.m.

That's because they're taking advantage of a 1992 state video slot law meant to compensate them for revenues lost to electronic gambling.

At Lincoln Park, wagering on greyhounds fell for the 11th straight year in 1999. But owners of 15 kennels that operate at the track split more cash than they had in at least a decade: $10.4 million.

Under the law, the kennel owners get a cut of what's left in 1,500 video slot machines at the track.

Last year, the kennels shared $8.4 million from video gambling. Half of the owners, who are licensed, live out of state in places like Oklahoma, North Dakota, Florida and London, England.

The sum was up from $1.5 million in 1993, the first full year of video gambling.

The kennel owners made more from video gambling than they did any year in the last decade from greyhound racing, which is limping throughout the country because of casino popularity.

Now a Rhode Island lawmaker has introduced legislation to cap the owners' video gambling profits.

Sen. Robert Kells, D-Providence, wants to limit the owners to the $7.4 million they got in the year that ended June 30, 1999. Anything above that would go to community health centers around Rhode Island.

"This windfall they've been receiving has been going up one-point-three, one-point-four, one-point-five million dollars a year," Kells told The Providence Sunday Journal. "This is a great thing that happened to them."

While dog owners acknowledge that video gambling has helped kennels, they don't think they've gotten any windfall.

"This is the best money I've ever gotten in the dog business," said Ben H. Cole, of Hammon, Okla.

"But even with the revenue, none of us is getting rich. For years and years the dog men have just skirted on the edge of bankruptcy or oblivion."