Published: March 23, 2007 04:43 pm      

With table games approval, what’s next for West Virginia counties?

The 21st century sure has been full of surprises. Who would have thought that as a state we’d be affected by copper rustlers, tainted spinach and deadly dog food?

Now, with the approval of the West Virginia legislature and Gov. Joe Manchin, we need to brace ourselves for the prospect of table games and Las Vegas-style gambling, not only in four counties, but potentially springing up throughout the state.

In an apparently-unintended twist, county governments get more money if their territory includes a profitable table-game establishment.

This may be one way to “economic development,” but it’s the wrong way.

First, the legislature decided, the Constitution notwithstanding, that voters on a county-by-county basis could vote table games into existence at Mountain State racetracks.

Originally, the bill specified that the referendums could only take place in the four counties that already had dog or horse racetracks.

Then somebody pointed out that in West Virginia no law can include some counties and not others.

The restrictive language was removed.

So, now, if somebody wants to set up a racetrack in Mercer or McDowell or Monroe County, and proposes to start up table games — and a county election permits it — nothing would stand in their way.

The bill further directs that a portion of the receipts from the racetrack-casinos is to be given to the county commissions in counties where the racino is located. Those racinos doing more business than others will result in that county receiving a larger portion of the money.

It is, therefore, not only in a county’s “best interest,” the reasoning goes, to have a racino. It’s even better if it’s nurtured and promoted so it takes in more money than its in-state competitors. We need to build a better mousetrap, they would say.

An effort to amend the bill to divert some of that money into the proposed Mercer County equestrian park was shot down, amid confusion among legislators that they’d be voting to subsidize a “race track” in these parts.

Apparently they didn’t know, or didn’t care to find out, or were deliberately misled about, what an “equestrian park” is. Or maybe they knew that horse shows and horse races are not the same, but used the confusion as a convenient excuse to vote against the amendment.

They didn’t have the same problem with language that gives cash to greyhound breeders and horsemen benevolent associations. Did I mention that the mother of the Senate president is an officer in a greyhound-breeding business?

We have heard about the jobs created by gambling. Northern Panhandle communities fully embraced this enterprise, desperate for employers to fill the gap caused by downsized or closed steel mills.

Then we heard that to protect these West Virginia jobs, we had to stay competitive with other states. If Pennsylvania had a lottery, we had to have slot machines. If the Keystone State got slots, we need table games. What will be next if gambling interests are successful in getting table games into neighboring states?

With Gov. Manchin signing the table games bill Wednesday, one option remains for opponents of the effort. People have already said that when the bill becomes law, they plan a suit, claiming the legislation is illegal under the state constitution.

I remember the state Supreme Court deliberating about gaming revenue a couple of years ago. Living in the real world, they felt they had to balance the constitutionality of the practice with the fact that the revenue had become a major source of money in the state budget. They let the cash keep flowing.

It appears citizens may have the opportunity to question the legality of table games in court before the ship of state sails too far down that revenue stream, too.

We will be better off if the court hears that suit sooner rather than later.

Tom Bone is a Daily Telegraph sports writer and editorial cartoonist.