If you have a basement full of old horseracing videos and you live anywhere near Kentucky it might well by ripe time to dig a load of them out. The gambling industry in the state might well be about to take a shot in the arm thanks to a court ruling.
The ruling on Wednesday by Judge Thomas Wingate means that Kentucky’s statutes would allow for bettors to place bets on Instant Racing, electronic machines that give bettors data and odds and allow them to bet on previously run races.
It’s a small victory for the Kentucky horseracing industry, which has been slow on the uptake of new measures to combat the current economic climate.
“We are very please with the court’s ruling. We always felt we were on firm legal footing. It affirmed our belief,” said Patrick Neely with the Kentucky Equine Education Project, a horse-industry lobbying group.
In the rafters, there are still those well and truly opposed to the decision, and they have promised to appeal the decision in its current state.
“It gives the advocates of expanded, mechanized gambling a piece of paper to wave in front of others so that they will be impressed with the legality. But we still challenge the legality of what they are doing, we do not think this is pari-mutuel horse racing on live horses,” said Martin Cothran from the Family Foundation.
For the moment though you would be well advised to dig out those old tapes and get down to the machines to see if you can win some monies. It’s basically printing free money.
