Slot machine plan exempts tracks from many laws

Monday, March 4, 2002 | 11:11 a.m.

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- A proposal to let Kentucky race tracks operate slot machines would exempt those operations from many state and local laws.

The slot operations would be excluded from local planning and zoning rules and exempt from many local taxes. The state agency that would oversee the additional gambling would not have to comply with many open records and meetings requirements.

The proposal also has several provisions that turn over unusual control of operations to the race tracks and gambling facilities. For example, if state or local law enforcement officers began investigating records kept by the state gambling control board, the board would have to notify the race track being investigated.

Also, the seven part-time gubernatorial appointees who would make up the gambling commission would have the powers of peace officers, meaning they could make arrests.

Virtually all operational decisions, from hours of operation to the number of slot machines allowed, would also be left to the eight currently licensed race tracks, which would be the only companies eligible to get slot machine licenses. The bill does specify that slot machines would have to pay out at least 80 percent and no more than 97 percent.

"It's like open, carte blanche for the race tracks," said the Rev. Nancy Jo Kemper, director of the Kentucky Council of Churches and one of the founders of Kentuckians Against Gambling Expansion. "It opens the door for any and every contingency."