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Kentucky Casino Issue Dead

March 28, 2008

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear has officially declared his initiative for casinos dead, saying there simply were not enough votes in the state legislature.

The Kentucky Equine Education Project (KEEP) issued the following statement: "This is no doubt a very good day for Indiana, Illinois and West Virginia – as hundreds of millions of Kentucky dollars will continue to flow into their education, health care and transportation systems.

"It is also a very good day for the horse industries in Indiana, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, Delaware and others – as they will retain their significant competitive advantage over the horse industry in Kentucky," the statement continued. "It is obviously not a good day for Kentuckians who would like to keep those dollars here in our state to pay for our education, health care and transportation systems, who want to retain the 100,000 jobs and $4 billion per year that the horse industry provides our state, or those who would just like to have the opportunity to vote on this issue."

Legislators needed to pass a bill calling for a constitutional amendment for casinos, and then voters would have decided about casinos in November. Constitutional amendmends can only appear on the ballot in even-numbered years, thus the issue will not have another chance until 2010.