800 slot machines authorized for greyhound park

The Kansas Lottery Commission on Wednesday authorized the placement of 800 electronic slot machines at the Wichita Greyhound Park pending voter approval here.

The five-member lottery commission also approved 800 slots for the Woodlands track in Kansas City, Kan., and 600 slot machines for Camptown Greyhound Park in Frontenac. The commission also established rules and regulations governing the slot machines at the tracks.

But before slot machines can go in at the Wichita Greyhound Park, voters here must approve it. A referendum on the question, as well as whether a casino could be placed in Sedgwick County, is set for Aug. 7.

The actions follow a law created this year by the Legislature allowing slot machines at the three tracks and casinos in four areas of the state, including Sedgwick and Sumner counties.

All told, the law allows 2,800 slot machines among the three horse and dog tracks. But 600 of those slot machines won't be authorized until casinos are in place across the state.

Meanwhile, the Kansas Lottery Commission on Wednesday extended by 90 days the deadline for casino applications to be submitted in Wyandotte County, which approved casino gambling in June. The new deadline will be Dec. 31.

The Unified Government of Wyandotte County had asked for an extension, saying it expected a "great number" of casino proposals, the lottery says. The unified government must decide which proposal or proposals to endorse.

Sloth machine 'winners' may be charged

Prosecutors are considering filing charges against some Caesars Indiana casino patrons who walked away with too much cash from a malfunctioning slot machine.

Harrison County prosecutors have asked the Indiana State Police for casino videotapes and other evidence from the machine that malfunctioned last July, said chief deputy prosecutor John Colin.

Caesars lost $487,000 to patrons who used the machine installed with new software that wasn't designed for U.S. currency, state police said.

The machine gave gamblers $10 credit for each dollar they inserted.

A Caesars spokeswoman said some of the players returned the money after being contacted by the southern Indiana casino, but she did not know how many did or how much they returned.

The investigation was still pending partly because it has taken longer than expected to obtain casino records, Colin said. A decision on whether to bring charges could come within a couple of weeks, he said.

"This is a bit of an unusual case because you've got to go back and piece together who did what," he said.

Caesars found out about the mistake when Kathryn Ford of Louisville, Ky., noticed the slot machine had registered $200 when she put in $20. She and her husband alerted Caesars employees, but by then, more than two dozen gamblers had played the device.

Ford told The Courier-Journal of Louisville that she thought it was unfair to go after patrons. When a slot machine jams and gamblers lose money, they don't get it back, she said.

"It doesn't work in the reverse," Ford said. "They need to forget it and move on."

Colin said "criminal intent" may be involved when people played a machine they knew was faulty.

Airport gambles on slot machines

It is called the Essential Air Service program, but it props up air travel used by very few people. Five airports in West Virginia are among the 100 around the country where tickets are subsidized by the federal government.

The program began nearly 29 years ago, when President Carter and a Democratic Congress deregulated the airline industry.

The propping up of air service few people want is an expensive proposition.

"Excluding Alaska, where many air routes are subsidized, the Transportation Department paid out about $74 for each one-way passenger in the program in fiscal 2005, the New York Times reported last fall. "That is more than Amtrak's famously large per-passenger subsidy, which is $19 to $52, depending on how it is calculated."

While a case can be made for making federal taxpayers subsidize airlines to keep service to remote communities, why do taxpayers have to subsidize air travel to Lancaster, Pa.? It is only 66 miles from Philadelphia, which has direct flights to all over.

Pueblo, Colo., is only 40 miles from a major airport in Colorado Springs. But federal taxpayers still subsidize travel to the tune of $255 per ticket, one way, to Denver, which is 110 miles away.

Fortunately, Pueblo averages only five tickets sold per day. If it had as much traffic as O'Hare in Chicago, the federal government would go broke.

Even with subsidies, the Wood County Airport in Williamstown is having severe financial problems., and was down to its last $14,000.

Officials at the airport are toying with the idea of getting a liquor license and installing a few video slot machines to subsidize the cost of operations.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Here comes another agency that may seek to become dependent upon bettors to stay alive.

Sometimes, economic activity kept alive by such measures ends up looking like Frankenstein.

Casino Queen gets ready to move inland

Tom Monaghan, general manager of the Casino Queen, has on his best poker face.

In less than three weeks, the casino that has operated on a riverboat for 14 years is moving to fancier, larger quarters on the Queen's parking lot.

It will be the first of Illinois' nine casinos to move inland, but the gaming floor will still float, housed in a basin filled with 340,000 gallons of water. The rest of the facility, including five restaurants, a lobby and a gift shop, was built over dry land.

It's Monaghan's job to make sure the move is smooth.

Asked last week how he was doing, Monaghan replied, "I'll be better in 25 days."

He manages a smile as he pats a fat binder on his conference table that lays out the meticulous plan to set up one casino while preparing to shut down another. The biggest gamble comes Aug. 2, when the casino on the boat closes at 3 a.m.

Seventeen hours later — at 8 p.m. — the new, land-based Casino Queen will open to the public. Monaghan says the new casino will be easier to access, and all the gambling will occur on one level.

The current Casino Queen, fashioned as a replica of a 19th-century sidewheeler riverboat, sits on the east bank of the Mississippi River, across from the Gateway Arch.

Crunch time for casino operators comes July 30, when workers begin moving over four days roughly half of the 1,100 slot machines from the boat to the new building. The old slot machines will be installed alongside 547 new machines.

Most of the slots making the move are the penny and 2-cent machines, said Mitch Johnson, director of slot operations. They are the most popular with customers, he said.

While the riverboat has its charm, it is far from the grand Las Vegas-style casinos that more closely define the Casino Queen's competition in Missouri, including the $400 million Lumiere Place rising on Laclede's Landing. Monaghan has a nice view of the work from his Casino Queen office.

"There is no doubt that we'll have the premier gaming facility in Illinois," Monaghan said last week, deflecting comments about going head to head with larger casinos in Missouri, where there are loss limits. Illinois does not have such a restriction.

Two years ago, the Illinois Legislature changed the law to allow gaming boats on the Mississippi River to move to man-made basins. The Queen is the first to do so.

In Missouri, boat-in-a-moat casinos have been allowed since 1998. Nine of the state's 11 casinos — including all of those in the St. Louis area except the President Casino on Laclede's Landing — are set up that way.

The Queen, with its 1,100 workers, is the largest employer in East St. Louis, and its largest tax generator. About half of the city's $20 million operating budget comes from the casino. The new facility is expected to bring in $1 million to $1.5 million a year more for the city.

Monaghan said the bigger casino is expected to create more jobs, most notably in the food and beverage area. Until the casino is up and running, it is unclear exactly how many new employees will be hired, he said.

No matter how large the casino grows, the Queen has no plans to relinquish its "Loosest Slots in the Country" title, a trade publication honor that the casino has held for two years.

"Our marketing plan will not change," Monaghan said. Based on his facial expression, this was no bluff.