Governor Steve Beshear waged a war throughout 2009 on online gambling as a reason for underage addiction in the USA. Now, his war has become more pragmatic, and he is pushing for the legalisation of slot gambling in the state of Kentucky.

Legal gambling is much easier to regulate and with the rise of the online industry causing problems internationally, it is a trend that states all over the US are trying to build places in which to gamble legally on the off chance that the laws are changed.

Beshear has made the argument that, despite the investment needed, the revenues generated in the first couple of years could go, in large part, towards helping the state recover from the thousands of layoffs brought about since 2008 as a result of the recession.

Beshear was recently seen as an enemy of the industry, having tried last year to seize 141 gambling domain names and failing. This is not, however, how he wishes to be seen and has also promised that the revenues generated from legal slot gambling would be put into the failing horse-racing industry, it being a large part of the Kentucky culture.