In a recent debate with state Attorney General Andy Beshear, who’s running to replace Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, the current governor denied making a statement that suicides happen nightly in casinos. “I don’t know where this comment about the casinos comes from. I’ve never said anything like that. That’s absolute malarkey,” Bevin said.
However, Beshear responded that Bevin’s remarks were recorded during a July radio interview. Bevin, discussing the societal costs of gambling, was stated gambling-related suicides in casinos are nightly occurrences. He said, “Every night somewhere in America, somebody takes their life in a casino because they’ve wasted the last semblance of dignity and hope that they had. Families are ruined. Lives are ruined.”
Countering Beshear, Bevin argued, “No, it isn’t on tape. You’re not telling the truth. Again, the truth matters. And if it’s on tape, I want you to produce that tape and show people where I said this happens on the floor of casinos.”
Beshear said he had attached Bevin’s audiotaped remarks in a social media post that said: “You asked for the tape, so we found it for you.” He said, “Folks, this is someone who cannot admit when they have made something up and they’ve been caught. Kentuckians deserve a governor who respects them enough to not deny the very things they’ve said.”
Beshear supports expanded gambling and has proposed directing the state’s share of gambling revenue toward Kentucky’s struggling public pension systems. Bevin opposes casino gambling, calling it “fool’s gold” and a “pipe dream,” and claiming it would never pass the Republican-majority legislature.
He said Beshear’s claims that casino gambling would generate more than $500 million in annual revenue for the state used “made-up numbers. You’re promising things that cannot be delivered,” Bevin said.
Beshear responded that’s the amount Kentuckians now spend on gambling in other states.
