The Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation cites a statewide theft ring in the closure order.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Some charitable games are still open at Shirley’s Way, including at the organization’s office off Dixie Highway.
Founder Mike Mulrooney said they received an order from the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation (KHRGC) on Friday, calling for the closure of all of their machines provided by Light & Wonder (LNW) Gaming, Inc.
Kathy Ethridge was playing a game at the Dixie Highway location and heard about the order.
“I think its crazy,” Ethridge said. “He’s doing such a good job for so many people and then because somebody isn’t getting their money, they don’t want him to do it.”
Mulrooney said the weekend has been stressful.
“There’s really no need for it because everything was going great,” Mulrooney said. “We were supporting tons of people and tons of kids, tons of organizations, and it all ended at 5 o’clock on Friday.”
This is when Mulrooney said they got the notice. He was frustrated with the timing and not being able to get answers quickly because of the weekend.
Charitable gaming supports the work Shirley’s Way does through helping cancer patients and the community.
“[LNW Gaming, Inc.] had a bug in their system that they have since fixed,” Mulrooney said. “We hadn’t thought much about it until Friday when they shut all the games down, but it’s huge impact to us.”
LNW Gaming, Inc. machines make up about 90% of the non-profit’s gaming machines, and is one of two gaming machines ordered to close by KHRGC.
In the order, KHRGC acknowledged their notification of “multiple instances of illegal ‘fishing'” in the state, theft totaling tens of thousands of dollars. The document says licensed organizations have failed to prevent the crime, which has brought about the immediate order.
Mulrooney is worried about financially fulfilling his non-profit’s mission. He said programs where they help kids, like their feeding program had to be canceled. This program feeds about 3,500 kids across 26 schools in Louisville.
“It was very difficult to send an email yesterday to all of these schools that we had to hopefully temporarily, hopefully it’s temporary, but we had to end the feeding program right before the holidays,” Mulrooney said. “[For] a lot of these kids, we were sending extra food home during the holiday weeks because it’s a 4 day holiday weekend for a lot of these kids, …so it’s very unfortunate that it happened, especially right now.”
He said they’ve canceled events and have to scale back on helping other non-profits and people who are unhoused.
Now, all they can do is wait for answers on how long the order will last and if the organization will have to change their operations.
In the meantime, the sounds can be heard at the Dixie Highway location while people continue to support the work Shirley’s Way does.
“It’s the only reason I play and don’t care that I lose,” Ethridge said.
Mulrooney said his organization is not alone and others in Louisville are being impacted by the ordeer. He said he’s joining those groups for a meeting with KHRGC on Monday to get more answers.
A member of KHRGC told WHAS11 that the corporation will have a response on Monday.
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