Wednesday, July 7, 1999 | 11:40 a.m.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The casino crowds pass Betty Boone every day she works, even though Kentucky, capital of thoroughbred horse racing, has zero casinos -- for now.
Boone runs the gift shop at the Seelback Hilton in downtown Louisville. Just 15 miles away, docked on the Ohio River in Indiana, sits the Glory of Rome, a 4,000-passenger casino resort operated by Starwood's Caesars World casino company.
It opened in November and is one of four Indiana casinos sitting on northern Kentucky's border. They've lured bettors from Kentucky's horse tracks and state lottery, prompting Gov. Paul Patton this spring to float the idea of a constitutional amendment that would allow up to 14 casinos in the Bluegrass State.
The debate is in full bloom. Patton has ordered a study of the impact of the Indiana casinos and of what might happen -- economically and socially -- if Kentucky allowed gaming houses.
"He was concerned about the money that was leaving the state," said Mark Pfeiffer, a spokesman for the governor.
Kentucky state legislators already are promising bills next year that would introduce casinos. Mississippi and Louisiana are the South's leading casino hubs, and so-called "cruises to nowhere" ply the waters off Georgia, South Carolina and Florida in floating casinos that allow betting outside the 3-mile limit.
"Kentucky's feeling left out," said Boone, who watches shuttles leave the hotel every day bound for Indiana.
Boone sells Kool 100s, Camels and Marlboro Lights to people who visit from all over the state, many just to plunk money into slot machines across the river. She says she would vote for casinos and guesses at least half the hotel's gambling visitors would stay and spend in Kentucky if the state authorized casinos.
"You've got people who travel 150 miles just for a day out," she said.
Horse tracks like Churchill Downs, where the Kentucky Derby has been run for 125 years, favor the casino initiative if it would allow them to set up video slot machines in their grandstands.
"We should have it. I don't think it will hurt the horse business at all," Pat Broderick said during a recent day at Churchill Downs with his family. A police officer in a nearby town, Broderick raises horses on the side.
"Nobody wants to do anything that would hurt Churchill Downs," said University of Louisville economics Professor Paul Coomes. "They're like apple pie around here."
Mark Leidlein, a 31-year-old sales manager visiting Churchill Downs from Chicago, said video slots would complement betting on horses.
"Kentucky should have it just because Indiana has it," he said. "They're probably taking tax dollars away from Kentucky."
Some gambling companies are waiting to see what happens before weighing in. One is GTECH, which operates the Kentucky Lottery and was a partner in the purchase of the Turfway horse track.
"What we're seeing is like trying to take a drink from a fire hydrant right now," Bob Vincent, vice president of a GTECH subsidiary, Dreamport, told the Lexington Herald-Leader. "There are ideas being tossed out right now into the public domain, and they need to settle out."
Opposition already has emerged. Church leaders worry about moral decay while others are concerned about the proliferation of problem gamblers.
At the Louisville Galleria, a fading mall downtown, people collect at the Kentucky Lottery booth. Jan Tinsley, a cashier in a shop across the street, regularly gets stuck behind people buying stacks of tickets as she waits to buy a pack of Sweet Heat potato chips.
"It makes me wonder if it's going to be the same people at the casinos" as the ones buying lottery tickets, said Tinsley, leaning on a display case with WWJD necklaces. "I understand the tax issue, but what if it's easier to gamble with a boat out there?
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