Yesterday, Beshear told me he shared some of the blame for the failure of the casino bill. The governor said, in hindsight, maybe the enabling legislation was too detailed or he waited too long to introduce his casino plan, though he says that was at the request of House leaders. Beshear also says the infighting among democratic House leaders didn't help the bill's chances. But he says he's satisfied that the issue had a good debate and wouldn't go away until Kentucky voters get a chance to decide the issue at the polls. "Say No To Casinos" spokesman John-Mark Hack told me yesterday that he thinks the casino bill failed because Kentuckians didn't want it. He's hoping the horse industry and casino interests will give up and stay away from Kentucky.

Here's the statement today from KEEP, which is the lobbying arm of the horse industry:
This is no doubt a very good day for Indiana, Illinois and West Virginia - as hundreds of millions of Kentucky dollars will continue to flow into their education, health care and transportation systems. It is also a very good day for the horse industries in Indiana, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, Delaware and others - as they will retain their significant competitive advantage over the horse industry in Kentucky. It is obviously not a good day for Kentuckians who would like to keep those dollars here in our state to pay for our education, health care and transportation systems, who want to retain the 100,000 jobs and $4 billion per year that the horse industry provides our state, or those who would just like to have the opportunity to vote on this issue."