Big surprise: Pro-gambling poll by pro-gambling group
finds support for gambling

LEXINGTON, KY - "This survey is the polling equivalent of loaded dice,” said Martin Cothran, senior policy analyst for The Family Foundation of Kentucky.  “A poll by a pro-casino, gambling organization with questions slanted in favor of casino gambling is probably going to get a pro-casino, gambling result,” he said. “We’re just not terribly surprised about this.”

The poll, paid for by KEEP—the Kentucky Equine Education Project, which is pushing for expanded gambling in the state—claims to have found majority support for a constitutional amendment allowing casino gambling at horse tracks.  The poll purports to also have found support for expanded gambling outside tracks.

According to Cothran, if you look at the questions closely, what you find is that they include promises that are not likely to be kept, biasing the questions in favor of casino gambling.  “The questions bias the answers of respondents in favor of the gambling by saying that the tax money generated from casino gambling would go to education, health care, local government, and the environment,” said Cothran.  “What they don’t tell us is that we were promised the same kind of thing when the Lottery was passed in 1988, but the money was never designated for any kind of education purpose until ten years later, when KEES legislation was finally passed.  People were lied to about the Lottery, and they’re being lied to again.”

KEEP also claimed to find 92 percent support for putting gambling expansion on the ballot.  “If people want a measure like this on their ballot, then that’s what they will tell their state representatives and senators.  But most of the lawmakers we’ve talked to are telling us the opposite.” 

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Martin Cothran is the senior policy analyst for The Family Foundation, a nonprofit public policy organization that works on behalf of the family and the values that make families strong.