Ohio Casino Issue Qualifies For Ballot

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A proposal to allow casino gambling in Ohio's four largest cities was cleared for the fall ballot Tuesday, within days of lottery-run slot machines at horse racing tracks being legalized.

Both plans are being pitched as saviors to the Rust Belt state's ailing economy - the slots plan by raising $933 million for state coffers and salvaging the state's once proud horse racing industry; the prospective casino plan by promising 34,000 new jobs in Ohio's struggling urban centers.

The two plans also are alike in another way: Both are backed by big gambling interests that will spend millions ahead of November's vote fighting for their side.

Charlie Luken, chairman of the Ohio Jobs and Growth Committee pledged an "aggressive fight" Tuesday to educate Ohioans about the benefits the four gambling palaces could bring.

The committee is a joint effort of Pennsylvania-based Penn National Gaming Inc. and Dan Gilbert, majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Among the committee's promises are "first-class casinos" in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus and Toledo; $11 billion in economic impact within the first five years; $651 million in casino tax revenue for counties, cities and school districts; and $200 million in upfront fees paid to the state for work force development and job training.

The leading voice against the issue is likely to be MTR Gaming Group Inc., which has among its properties Mountaineer Casino & Resort in Chester, W.Va., and the Scioto Downs horse track in Columbus, where some of the new slot machines will go. Cleveland casino developer Jeffrey Jacobs, whose family once owned the Cleveland Indians, is the chairman of Mountaineer's board.

During a July 3 hearing on the controversial slots plan, which places up to 2,500 video lottery terminals at each of seven Ohio horse tracks, MTR CEO Robert Griffin said his company planned to spend between $6 million and $8 million to defeat the casino plan.

The slots proposal, championed by Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland as a way to balance the budget, was nearly derailed when Republican lawmakers gleaned from tracks that they were unlikely to continue with slots investments until the fate of the casino amendment is known.

The executive order Strickland eventually signed removed a provision that would have guaranteed refunds to tracks for their initial investments if the casino issue passed.

While gambling titans battle out the casino amendment's fate, it remains to be seen whether victory for one form of gambling - slots - this summer will soften Ohio voters' attitudes toward another form - casinos - this fall.

Even in desperate economic times, the conservative Ohio Roundtable and anti-gambling church leaders say they are certain the casino issue will again fail. They have successfully fought back expanded gambling proposals for two decades, most recently last fall.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner certified the casino issue for the ballot Tuesday, saying the committee had 452,956 valid signatures among the 850,000 it submitted. That surpassed the 402,000 necessary to qualify for a place on the November ballot.

But Brunner's office has simultaneously launched an investigation into the propriety of the petition effort, following complaints by opponents that the issue was being misrepresented, that names of the dead appeared on some petitions, and that felons had been enlisted to collect names.

MTR, meanwhile, filed suit late Friday with the Ohio Supreme Court challenging the validity of the casino backers' petition on similar grounds. Under a new, expedited hearing schedule, Brunner must file a response by Friday and MTR must lay out its case by Friday, with Brunner's office required to make its final reply by Tuesday.

If MTR succeeds, it would not be the first time that clashing gambling interests canceled out each other's efforts in Ohio. Penn National spent $36 million last fall to defeat a ballot measure proposing a $600 million casino resort in Clinton County in southwest Ohio, which was backed by Lake Entertainment.

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