Kansas Agriculture wins with 
the Expanded Gaming Opportunity Act

When you think of Kansas, you think agriculture.  A big part of the Kansas Agriculture picture is the live racing industry.  Thousands of Kansans make their living from the agriculture side of pari-mutuel racing.

Kansas is known for the quality of its greyhound breeding and training.  Kansas Whelped Greyhounds compete and win in 18 states.  But in our own state, Kansas greyhound owners are losing opportunities to race because of Missouri riverboats and Indian Casinos.  We're losing good operators to states like Iowa and West Virginia where big purses supplemented by expanded gaming revenues.

The same is true for our live horse racing industry. While Kansas is still home to a strong live horse racing industry, these have been tough times for both thoroughbred and quarterhorse operators.  Kansas was once the 5th leading producer of racing Quarter horses in the nation.

Kansas has gaming, in the form of Indian Casinos and Missouri riverboats, but we don't have the benefit of sharing in the revenues.

Kansas needs to regulate gaming in such a way that it benefits all Kansans.

The Expanded Gaming opportunity Act would:

• Generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the state to help keep taxes low and fund important state services.
• Dedicate a portion of the revenues from pari-mutuel race tracks to increasing purses for live racing and special breed funds which would encourage more investment in the important breeding industries of our state.
• The pari-mutuel portion of this legislation would provide the state with more than 100 million dollars in direct revenues, and add more than 200 million dollars in economic impact to the rural areas of the state through significant expansion of the live racing industry.