Two groups opposing each other on legislation involving the cash payout games proliferating in stores around Kentucky are on pace to shatter lobbying spending records in the 2023 session, according to reports filed with the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission.

Called “legal skill games” by supporters and “illegal gray machines” by opponents, the video games resembling slot machines were nearly banned in the 2022 session of the Kentucky General Assembly, an expensive fight pitting the horse racing industry against Pace-O-Matic, the largest maker of the games in Kentucky and other states.

Those two industries are once again the main players financing the fight over the games through the first month of this year’s session.