Voters in Louisville Area Legalize Gambling, Seek Riverboat Casino

 
Voters in the suburbs of Louisville, Ky., one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the U.S., on Tuesday overwhelmingly voted to legalize gambling, and are now seeking to open a riverboat casino there, from Caesars or another major international gaming company, during the next year.
 
 
"I'm not surprised," said Perkins.
 
Perkins and other politicians publicly supported the gambling referendum; saying. he did so for the quite obvious "economic benefits" of a casino.
 
Perkins said the suburbanites there have had nearly a decade's worth of experience with Caesars, which operates a riverboat casino, called the "Caesar's Harrison County," a few miles down the winding Ohio River.
 
According to Perkins, there have been "millions of dollars" in revenues brought to that county by just that one casino.
 
The fastest way for the new casino to open up would be to ask the state government to authorize a license for a riverboat. Thus far, there are some 11 riverboat casinos in Indiana, said Perkins.  The Louisville area casino would be the 12th licensed gambling facility in the state.
 

The Final Word

Robert Bailey, the leader of the church groups that were virulently opposed to gambling in southern Indiana, accepted the results of the election with equanimity. "The people have spoken," said Bailey, director of missions for the Southeastern Indiana Baptist Association.
 
Bailey admitted that gambling is growing in the Louisville area. The popular Grand Victoria Casino in the Louisville area faces competition from two other casino operations in nearby Cincinnati, Ohio, Bailey said.
 
Bailey and his group lobbied against the Clark County measure by asking the pastors of the county's more than 100 churches to urge their congregants to vote against the ballot question, but there was no, real organized opposition, no anti-gambling posters, literature, or yard signs.
 
Democrat Perkins is said to have led the effort to legalize gambling in the suburban Louisville enclave, circulating a petition early this year to put the question on the election ballot. Even local Republicans joined in the effort, however.
 
Though Republicans seem to have saved face with that measure in the Midwest, their opposition to gambling, elsewhere, may have cost them dearly this election season. Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa), who held a "field hearing" against online gambling this summer, during the Congressional recess, and who worked behind the scenes with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) to revive anti-gambling legislation in this Congress, lost his bid for re-election, as did other gambling opponents.
 
The Republicans also lost their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, meaning that the gambling issue may be revisited once again next year, when Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), takes over as Speaker of the House. Who knows? Maybe Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who is resigning, may go back to corporate life, and helm one of the major, publicly traded gaming operations. He's been CEO of General Instrument and J.D. Searle, two major public companies, and is quite effective in boosting corporate share prices, after taking a gamble on the two, once-failing giants.


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