Illinois' horse-racing industry is offering to ride to the rescue of a fading plan to fund billions in state infrastructure work.

   At a press conference Tuesday morning, officials from a half-dozen tracks said they're willing to accept thousands of video poker machines that were supposed to be installed in bars and restaurants to fund the capital projects but instead are being rejected by local governments all over the state.

   The trackmen hinted that they're even willing to accept slot machines in the service of the state.

   "We are ready, willing and able," said Hawthorne Race Course President and General Manager Tim Carey IV, gleefully conceding that moving video poker and slots to the tracks would make more money for his facility and for the state. "There is a socially accepted national trend for video gaming at tracks, and we can generate millions of dollars in tax revenue."

    Moving video poker to tracks "conservatively" would raise $100 million to $200 million a year for the state by relocating machines in Will County, suburban Cook County and other jurisdictions that have banned them since the Legislature passed the capital plan earlier this year, said Greg Szymski, executive director of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Assn.

    By helping itself, the state also would be helping out tracks that now are at a competitive disadvantage to facilities in other states that offer both racing and gaming machines, Mr. Szymski said. "This is about jobs and businesses closing because the Legislature won't act to make our state competitive."

   Despite the let-us-help plea, the track proposal likely faces an uphill road in the General Assembly next year. Anti-gambling forces don't want any more legal gambling anywhere, and riverboat casinos consider tracks to be competitors and would want something for themselves.

   My take: Though the proposal is outrageously self-serving, the horse guys are right about one thing: If the state doesn't plug the hole caused by local rejection of video poker, the state can't do the capital work.

    Moreover, while video poker at the neighborhood bar or restaurant makes gambling just too simple and easy, in my view, concentrating the machines at a few highly regulated facilities like tracks should minimize problems.