Commonwealth Policy Center

Are video slots machines that feature a two-second video of horserace – a bet on a horserace or just what they look like: a video slot machine? That’s the question the Kentucky Supreme Court will finally answer after a ten-year legal battle. In 2010, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission authorized a game they called “instant racing.” You put your money in, push the button, and if you get three or four of a kind, you win. They slap a very short video in the upper corner that features the last seconds of a horse race and argue that people were betting on a horse race all along. Whether you’re for or against horse racing, the process by which we got nearly 7500 video slots was dubious. We’ll see if the Kentucky Supreme Court agrees.