Sedgwick County’s defeat of gambling measure could mean more slots for The Woodlands
By RICK ALM and DAVID KLEPPER
The Kansas City Star
Rejection of gambling by Sedgwick County voters on Tuesday gives The Woodlands a chance to double the number of slots at the racetrack.
The unexpected outcome struck down measures that would have allowed a resort casino in Wichita and at least 800 slot machines at the racetrack there.
The defeat also threatens to take a bite out of tax revenue that state budget makers have projected.
News that The Woodlands could get some or all of the Wichita track’s 800 slots was greeted enthusiastically by officials with the Kansas City, Kan., racetrack, which wants as many slots as it can get.
“Obviously we don’t get to make that decision,” said Woodlands executive Larry Seckington. “We’d certainly take 1,400” or more, he said.
The news also heightened concern among casino operators in Missouri, who see the local market being sliced even more thinly. They said it puts even more impetus on Missouri to drop the state’s $500 loss limit, which keeps away high-stakes gamblers.
“There are different rules on each side of the state line,” said Troy Stremming, an executive at the Ameristar Kansas City Casino and Hotel and president of the Missouri Gaming Association. “A level playing field is critical now more than ever in the Kansas City market with 1,600 slots at The Woodlands and a destination casino coming on the Kansas side” in Wyandotte County, probably near Kansas Speedway.
The Missouri General Assembly earlier this year rejected a repeal proposal. The industry next year is expected to push a petition effort to force the issue onto a 2008 statewide ballot.
Tuesday’s vote also means a resort casino, by default, is now headed to Sumner County, population 25,256, on the Oklahoma border, which approved a casino referendum in 2005.
“This issue was huge down here," said Rep. Vince Wetta, a Wellington Democrat who worked to include Sumner County in the state’s gambling legislation. “Now we’re the only ones who have a chance.”
Under Kansas’ new rules, there is no lid on how many slots will be allowed at what now will be three state-owned resort casinos in Wyandotte, Sumner and Cherokee or Crawford counties where voters have approved legalized casino gambling, but there is a lid on the numbers at Kansas’ three racetracks, including The Woodlands.
Each track is guaranteed a minimum 600 slots apiece within the 2,800 racetrack slots allowed statewide. Wichita Greyhound Park and The Woodlands each tentatively were awarded an additional 200 slots by the Kansas Lottery Commission, which owns all commercial gambling under legislation signed into law in April by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
With Wichita Greyhound Park now out of the picture — its owners said the facility would be closed within 90 days — Woodlands operators have an opportunity to obtain licenses for up to the maximum 1,600 slots allowed any single track. Wichita’s statutory minimum allocation of 600 slots might be reassigned, or taken off the table, which would drop the statewide lid to 2,200 racetrack slots. Those decisions won’t come until fall.
The former Camptown track in Frontenac, Kan., recently renamed the New Frontier, would be eligible to compete for the maximum allocation as well.
That leaves 800 racetrack-slot licenses up for grabs to the highest bidder, with the bidding starting at a one-time fee of $2,500 per machine.
Those extra slot licenses won’t become available until after the state’s regular casinos open in each Kansas gambling zone, probably no later than 2010. But casinos in each zone also can bid for any open track-slot licenses to “freeze out the competition,” said Keith Kocher, assistant attorney general and Kansas Lottery attorney.
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