Gambling news from http://wvgazette.com/
Kicking off a push to legalize table gambling at the state’s four racetracks in 2007, the West Virginia Racing Association released a poll Wednesday showing that a majority of residents support county referendums on the issue.
According to the survey of 800 registered voters statewide, 61 percent of those polled said they support holding referendums in racetrack counties on whether to permit casino-style table games at each track.
That marked a 10 percent increase over a similar poll by the association released at the start of the 2006 session, association president John Cavacini noted.
“I think this thing has been around long enough. The issue is about allowing people in these counties to decide,” he said.
In 2005, a table games bill passed the Senate 19-14 but died in House Judiciary Committee. This year, the bill again never emerged from the House committee, after leadership concluded there was not adequate support to bring the tumultuous issue to the House floor.
As in 2006, Cavacini said racetrack lobbyists would frame the issue in 2007 as a matter of letting voters in racetrack counties decide whether to allow table games at their tracks.
“The issue before the Legislature is one that would allow citizens of individual counties to decide on table games,” he said.
Unlike 2006, the financial impact of competition from video slots machines in Pennsylvania will be looming during the 2007 session, he said.
Cavacini said Pennsylvania will issue video slots licenses for racetracks in that state next Wednesday, ending a long-delayed process to install up to 61,000 slot machines in that state.
When the West Virginia Legislature convenes in January, he said, three to four racetracks will have competing video slots in operation, with additional facilities, including three freestanding casinos, ready to come on-line.
State budget estimates are that competition will drop the state’s racetrack video lottery revenues by about 8 percent, or more than $30 million, this budget year, and by 15 percent, or more than $62 million, in 2007-08.
Cavacini said the association believes table games would generate enough new business to at least offset those losses.
The four racetracks produced $423 million of lottery revenue for the state in 2005-06, he noted.
Cavacini said the association will not ask Gov. Joe Manchin to put the issue on the call for a proposed special session this fall on state tax reform.
However, he said, “Obviously, we’re going to be around the [Capitol] halls talking about, ‘Here’s a way to add new money to the general revenue stream.’”
Other findings in the poll, conducted by Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates in July:
Support for table games referenda was highest in the Eastern Panhandle, at 74 percent.
Cavacini said Charles Town Races had a summer-long advertising campaign aimed at healing sometimes-strained relations with the local community.
The area that least favored table games referenda was north-central West Virginia, at 53 percent support, presumably because the region is not near any of the four tracks in the state.
Republicans surveyed support table game referenda by a 56 percent to 36 percent margin.
“This is not a gaming issue,” Cavacini said. “If you’re a Republican and support referendum and recall, you have to support this.”
To contact staff writer Phil Kabler, use e-mail or call 348-1220.
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