FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — The Kentucky State Legislature moved one step closer to banning so-called "gray machines" in the Commonwealth. They're the coin operated games inside some Kentucky businesses where people can win money by playing what are described as games of skill. Some legislators, though, want to recategorize those as gambling devices and have them banned.
House Bill 594 has been working through the House in the Licensing, Occupations, and Administrative Regulations Committee. Representatives for people on both sides of the issue testified in that committee today.
The bill would ban those "gray machines". It's been backed by horse racing interests. Horse tracks have slot-like games of their own, described as "historical racing". Ashli Watts, President and CEO of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, said the existence of the other machines across the state could threaten the equine industry.
"We have worked really hard to become the horse capital of the world, the bourbon capital of the world, and we do not want to do anything that could put this in jeopardy. We know that some of these machines pose a threat to the equine industry that you all, as a legislature, have fought so hard to protect," Watts said.
On the other hand, people who represent the machines and the businesses who have them, say they don't pose any threat at all.
"We're not a competitor, okay? It's two totally different business models. Somebody going to a convenience store and buying a pack of gum and stopping to spend a couple of dollars in one of our machines is not the same person that goes to the racetrack, that goes to the HHR facilities. It's just not the same. We are not competition," said Bob Heleringer, who represents one of the machine companies.
That bill passed the committee Thursday evening. The full House could bring it up for a vote Friday. If they pass it, it will go on to the Senate.
