Major victory over gambling expansion
Citizens have their will done despite monies spent by gambling forces
From, The Kentucky Citizen Digest, May/June 2002

What do you do when a multi-million dollar industry with friends in the legislature wants to change the very culture of your state? The first thing you do is pray real hard. The second, to use a phrase from Nike—"just do it"—put up a fight against expanded gambling.

The out-of-state gambling industry began approaching legislators right before the 2002 General Assembly session, sometimes with cash in hand for campaign contributions. They argued that thousands of Kentuckians were traveling across the river to Indiana and Ohio casino boats, where they were dropping millions of dollars in quarters in slot machines and millions more on other games of chance.

"Why not keep the money in Kentucky," they asked, "where it could be taxed and spent on government services instead?"

This became the theme of their expensive television campaign, which featured an obnoxious gambler from Indiana laughing at Kentuckians for their stupidity in letting all that money cross the river. He wasn’t the only one laughing.

Out-of-state gambling magnates themselves must have been laughing—at Kentuckians who were buying their argument as they spent millions of dollars, not so more money could flow into the coffers of the state treasury, but into their own already bulging pockets.

In response, The Family Foundation launched its own campaign, which landed on television and radio airwaves across the state in the last weeks of the session. The ads featured former State Rep. Stan Cave, currently heading of The Family Foundation’s special project to halt expanded gambling. Cave urged people to become involved in the issue.

Appearing on KET’s "Kentucky Tonight," a program seen across the state, Cave opened fire on the gambling industry for its closed-door approach to getting its legislation passed. ""If gambling was so simple and it was the panacea that it is represented as being, there would be no need for secret deals and back -room meetings," he told Bill Goodman, the moderator of the program.

"I think Kentuckians have an instinctive understanding that the decision to expand gambling will change the very culture of this state, and will have deeply negative economic and social consequences," Cave said.

Cave continued the assault with an appeal to Kentuckians on television and radio. Television spots that ran in many areas showed Cave leaning on a fence in a horse pasture, appealing to Kentuckians to preserve the culture of their state. "In order for the gambling industry to win," he said, "Kentuckians have to lose."

The effort, along with that of several other groups opposed to expanded gambling, seemed to work. Just as the legion of pro-gambling lobbyists stalking the halls of the state Capitol were about to celebrate as their bill cleared committee in the House, their momentum seemed to be stolen from them.

March 19 seemed to be a critical turning point in this momentum swing when The Family Foundation held a press conference in the Capitol Rotunda. There Cave pointed out that in order for the revenue projections touted by the gambling proponents to be reached, each Kentuckian – every man, woman, child and baby – would have to gamble between $6,000 and $40,000 in the next six years. "These figures are staggering," said Cave. "Either the expanded gambling proponents are inflating their figures, or they are counting on Kentuckians to develop serious gambling addiction problems."

"Stan’s work on this issue was outstanding," said Martin Cothran, The Family Foundation’s senior policy analyst. "Along with the work of Nancy Jo Kemper and Citizens Against Gambling Expansion (CAGE), the gambling industry was stopped in its tracks—all this despite the fact that we were drastically outspent."

Opposition in the State Senate, which had been strong from the beginning, became even stronger, with Senate President David Williams declaring that the bill was dead on arrival in the Senate.

But the industry had been suspected of planning to sneak their legislation through in the budget process, a method that had the advantage of avoiding public scrutiny. The Family Foundation lobbyists in Frankfort had to keep an eagle eye on gambling industry lobbyists to the bitter end.

In the waning days of the session, the talk of expanded gambling in Kentucky got quieter and quieter, until proponents finally began talking about the weather and what could be done next session.

Of course, the issue will be back. But for now, at least, the gambling industry, an industry that spent millions of dollars to make its case in Kentucky—dollars gotten from gamblers in other states who were also told it was good for THEM—is licking its wounds.