Faced with an intractable Kentucky Legislature and ineffectual advocacy by Gov. Steve Beshear (D-KY), one parimutuel powerhouse from the Bluegrass State is setting up shop in Ohio. Today, Churchill Downs Inc. (in tandem with Delaware North Cos.) closed on its purchase of Buckeye State harness-racing companies Miami Valley Trotting and Lebanon Trotting Club. Faster than you can say “racino,” Churchill Downs and Delaware North whipped out a rendering of their proposed new, 2,500-VLT, $215 million gambling parlor … and race track, although the trotters are — let’s face it — four-legged showgirls in this latest iteration of casino gambling masquerading as the Sport of Kings. CDI/Delaware North will evacuate the current Warren County Fairgrounds track and relocate to an intersection in Turtle Creek Township, outside Lebanon. A former penal colony, the land will now become The Lebanon Raceway and is hoped to stimulate home prices in the area. If so, it’s all good.
Lebanon Raceway won’t open for another 13 months but is expected to create 700 jobs when it does. Incidentally, I don’t know if this is what Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) planned as his legacy, but he has now masterminded the most rapid casino expansion of any state in the last 15 years, larger than anything that the voters, the Lege or predecessor Ted Strickland ever envisioned. Big Gaming — especially Caesars Entertainment and Penn National Gaming — ought to leave some extra-large campaign donations in Casino Kasich’s Christmas stocking.
