[old timer]

Untangling the Kansas casino legal mess

By RICK ALM

The Kansas City Star, April 7, 2008


[bold added for emphasis]

www.kansascity.com | 04/07/2008 | Untangling the Kansas casino legal mess

...A lawsuit financed in part by Topeka-based taxpayer watchdog Americans for Prosperity-Kansas has alleged that all three casino projects proposed for Kansas City, Kan., violate the state casino law’s ban on public financing of casinos.

The lawsuit filed in Shawnee County District Court names the Kansas Lottery, the Kansas Lottery Commission, the Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board and the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission as defendants.

It would prohibit the state from inking management contracts with de facto casino owners Pinnacle Entertainment, Legends Sun and a partnership including Kansas Speedway and the Cordish Co. Any deal with those companies, it alleged, would amount to “an illegal tax” because each is “inextricably intertwined” with nongambling developments that, in years past, received state or local tax breaks, STAR bonds or some other public aid and, as such, “are part of the same overall development.”

Kansas’ casino law is clear: “No state or local tax abatement … no revenue bonds, tax increment financing or similar financing shall be used to finance any part of any lottery gaming enterprise or any racetrack gaming facility.”

Any bets that this group will be watching our tax dollars for us ? I'll give 3-1 that they will.