LJWorld.com / Gaming plan opponents want in on the action

Archive for Thursday, February 19, 2004

The Associated Press

February 19, 2004

Topeka — Several people who opposed Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' gambling plan in testimony before a Senate committee Wednesday said they want a piece of the action.

A spokesman for Kansas convenience stores said it doesn't make sense to exclude the more than 1,800 licensed lottery outlets in the state from operating video lottery terminals. The Kansas Charities Cooperative said casinos would put their bingo operations out of business, and bowling alley representatives said the governor's plan should also allow VLTs at their establishments.

"I was totally caught off-guard," Garry Winget, president of Kansans for Addiction Prevention, said after the hearing before the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee.

Winget said he has testified at least three times against expanded gambling, and before Wednesday, those also testifying in opposition did so because the oppose gambling -- not because the proposal leaves them out.

The state is considering gambling expansion because lawmakers are afraid to raise taxes, Winget told the committee

"We have persons with an ideology about transfer of wealth and the activities of government in the lives of its people," Winget said. "These persons resist the word 'tax' at an irrational level."

Under the governor's plan, the state would own up to five "world-class destination casinos," allow up to 2,500 video lottery terminals -- similar to slot machines -- spread among the state's five pari-mutuel tracks, and allow up to five VLTs in each of the roughly 240 fraternal clubs in the state.

"The casinos would be Kansas-class, drive-in casinos, not world-class destination casinos," Glenn Thompson, executive director of Stand Up for Kansas, told the committee. He said a world-class destination casino would cost about $1 billion; Sebelius' proposal would allow developments that cost as little as $30 million.

Vern Schwanke, owner of Colby Bowl Fun Center in Colby, said allowing slot machines in tax-exempt fraternal organizations pulls money away from taxpaying recreational enterprises such as bowling alleys.

"The state of Kansas should not be in the business of picking economic winners and losers," Schwanke said. "The state of Kansas should not be competing with its own citizens in the recreation business. Instead, let us participate."