Casino supporters gamble on court ruling

 In the world of gambling, it’s about the odds.
    Right now, the Kansas Lottery is betting that a law enacted last year allowing it to own and operate four resort casinos and have slot machines at race tracks is constitutional.
    So is Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, but just to make sure she asked the attorney general’s office to get a definitive ruling from the Kansas Supreme Court to quell any doubts.
    Last week, the justices heard arguments on the law’s validity and the key question of what state-owned and operated really means. Does it mean the Lottery must own everything from the carpets to the dice cups? Or does it mean the Lottery owns the games and has controls over the operations?
    The ownership issue arises because of how the Kansas Constitution is written and how the court once interpreted it.
    In 1986, Kansans rewrote the Constitution to say the Legislature could create a state-owned and operated lottery, which lawmakers did the following year. Then, the Supreme Court said in 1994 the term “lottery” is broad enough to include slot machines and other casino games.
    That gave legislators an opening to create casinos they say are owned and operated by Lottery. They also gave the Lottery authority to contract with developers to built and run the facilities.
    Oddsmakers bet the justices will uphold the law.
    They point to a lower court ruling in February that upheld the law. That ruling said nothing in the law prohibits the Lottery from taking the steps needed to exercise ownership and control of the casinos.
    Yet when it comes to handicapping the court, the only certainty is that there will be a ruling.
    “You can’t predict what the court is going to do. My feeling is our arguments were the stronger arguments, but most people will tell you that after going to the court,” said Ed Van Petten, Lottery executive director.
    Van Petten is no novice with the court. As deputy attorney general, he argued before the justices numerous times.
    “There is no way to have a preconception of their attitudes. You have seven individuals who are just that, individuals,” he said.
    While the court deliberates, the state is moving toward to the eventual awarding of management contracts for casinos in Wyandotte, Cherokee, Sumner and Ford counties.
    “We don’t have an option,” Van Petten said. “The statute has a timeline and deadlines and it doesn’t say unless there is litigation. So we have to go forward.”
    Next week, the Lottery Commission will consider 11 applicants — five for Wyandotte, four for Cherokee and two for Ford. It will decide how many it should endorse and forward to the Kansas Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board.
    The review board will conduct its own hearings and review and make its final selections in August and September. Then the Racing and Gaming Commission signs off after completing background checks.
    Hopefully, the court will have ruled by then. If not, the four developers are going to have to make a leap of faith if they want to start building immediately.
    Doug Lawrence, a lobbyist who played a leading role in putting together gambling legislation over the past decade, said he doesn’t think it would be much of a leap.
    “I have been confident the law is constitutional since I started working on this particular version,” he said. “There is no doubt the states has the right to run the games. The question is the relationship between the Lottery and the people it uses to manage the services.”
    Despite the upbeat prediction, there’s always the chance the court will strike down the law.
    That would bring the whole idea of resort casinos in Kansas to a slamming halt.
    “I think we are done at that point,” Van Petten said. “I think the process would stop at that point because there is nowhere to appeal that decision.”
    Lawrence said depending on what the court says in an adverse ruling, contracts might be rewritten to overcome any objections or there could be a legislative fix.
    Inviting the Legislature to get back into the act might not be the best idea, given that the gambling bill passed because of a perfect political storm unlikely to blow that way anytime soon.
    It passed the House with one vote more than necessary after it was tacked to a bill to renew the Lottery. It got through the Senate by the minimum margin there because opponents blundered, allowing supporters to delay a vote until they had enough for passage.
    So close was the vote that legislative leaders prevented any bill dealing with gambling from surfacing this year in either chamber. Such a bill could have been amended to repeal the expanded gambling law.
    “We had been reluctant to run a bill across the floor this year because opponents wanted a chance to kill gaming,” said Senate President Steve Morris, a Hugoton Republican.

    Because of this year’s elections, there will be a few new legislators next year, but there’s no way to gauge whether that will mean more or less support for gambling.
    One new dynamic is Sedgwick County voters’ rejection last year of a casino, so legislators from that area would be voting on something opposed by a majority of their constituents.
    Just as with any game of chance, those involved in bringing casinos to Kansas are moving forward and hoping the odds favor them.