CASINO NEWS

Election and Casino in US

William Yung III, who heads Crestview Hills-based Columbia Sussex Corp., has essentially placed a huge bet that newly elected Gov. Steve Beshear because he thinks that he will be able to get the state's long-standing prohibition against casinos lifted. An old fact for politics – a wealthy casino operator is defending an eye-catching $1 million contribution to a political group that worked to elect a pro-gambling governor in Kentucky.

Yung declared-''I make no apologies for helping get Steve Beshear elected. I've got a First Amendment right to spend my money any way I want to spend it.''

Beshear is proposing an amendment to the state constitution that would allow up to seven casinos to be built at Kentucky horse tracks and five others in communities along the state's borders with Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia. That many casinos, he said, could generate $600 million a year in tax revenue for a cash-strapped state government.

The proposal is a long shot in a Bible-belt state where lawmakers have rejected numerous other casino proposals over the past decade. If it passes, Yung would open a casino on a northern Kentucky site he bought just last month for $7 million.

Yung is well known because he may have worsened his odds with the land purchase and the political contributions, including a $10,000 donation to help pay for Beshear's inaugural party on the Capitol grounds. Casino opponents seized on his investments, claiming he is using his riches to buy his way into a new and potentially lucrative market.

Political contributions of $1 million or more are becoming common in state-level elections, said Rachel Weiss, spokeswoman for the National Institute on Money in State Politics.Yung would have to apply for a casino license just like anyone else, Beshear said.

''It would be naive for anybody to believe that a $1 million contribution to a fund that helped elect a pro-casino governor is not going to position the contributor in a favorable way,'' said John Mark Hack, head of the antigambling group Say No To Casinos.

Yung contends the problems were the result of a work slowdown unionized workers when the company began reducing jobs to bring staffing levels at the Tropicana in line with similar casinos.

Nevada gambling regulators, also reacting to the New Jersey sanctions, began a probe of Columbia Sussex, which has six casino-hotels in Nevada, including the Tropicana on the Las Vegas Strip.

Beshear had made legalizing casinos a centerpiece of his campaign against former Gov. Ernie Fletcher, a Republican who had been politically weakened by political scandal. Beshear pulled off a lopsided victory, and claimed it reflected broad-based support for legalizing casinos..

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