Valley should parlay its addiction

It's no secret that the residents of the Mahoning Valley like to gamble. Whether it's playing the lottery, attending bingo nights, going to the track or traveling to casinos around the country, folks from Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties are a common sight. Gambling is part of our culture. Just ask the officials at the Ohio Lottery Commission, or the owner of Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort in Chester, W.Va., which offers horse racing and slot machines.
And while some in the Valley would rather that we shed this reputation, the reality is that given the opportunity, many residents will place a bet or feed a slot machine.
Thus the question: Can the region benefit from this addiction? No, the question isn't designed to trigger a sociological study or a religious and moral debate. Instead, it is being asked in the context of what is taking place around us, in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Given that the Republican-dominated Ohio General Assembly has abandoned the idea of generating revenue for education by permitting slot machines to be installed at horse-racing tracks, a similar proposal winding its way through the Pennsylvania Legislature has made the Mahoning Valley a target for gambling interests' affections.
Consider this letter from a group called Constituents For Expanded Gambling in Pennsylvania to the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission touting a plan for a thoroughbred horse-racing complex on land off Route 422 in Mahoning Township, Pa.: "Your selection should go to the corporation in New Castle that has ... applied for the last license. Their location is only minutes from the Ohio border (emphasis added) with easy access to their proposed racing track from many directions.
"Millions of Ohioans will visit their location every week and generate the tremendous revenue Pennsylvania is looking for."
Does anyone doubt that the Ohioans the group was referring to is largely composed of Mahoning Valley residents? The corporation that has proposed the thoroughbred track (with slots) is called Bedford Downs Management Inc. The spokesman for the corporation is Carmen Shick, president of C.D. Ambrosia Enterprises, which was started by his grandfather, the late Carmen D. Ambrosia.
But there are other competitors for the new licenses that Pennsylvania would issue if the slot-machine bill passes the Legislature and is signed into law. One of them is Ted Arneault, owner of Mountaineer. Here's what a Vindicator story about Mountaineer published July 20 had to say: "Arneault said he would welcome slots in Ohio and Pennsylvania because MTR bought a racetrack in Columbus last December and has plans to build one in Erie."
Yes, Erie, just down the road from us.
Then Wednesday, The Vindicator ran a front-page story about plans for a thoroughbred racetrack called Pennsylvania Downs on land that's "a stone's throw away from the Pa. Route 60 and Pennsylvania Turnpike intersection, about nine miles east of the Ohio border."
Does anyone doubt that Pennsylvania Racing Associates LLC, a joint venture of Hartman and Tyner, a Michigan racetrack operator, and Oxford Development Co., a Pittsburgh-based real estate firm that owns such properties as One Oxford Center and South Hills Village Mall in Pittsburgh, didn't consider the Valley's love of gambling when it chose the site?
With so much affection being bestowed upon us, shouldn't we, as a region, be playing hard to get? Of course we should.
It's time to parlay our addiction for gambling into a monetary benefit for the Valley. A governor in one of the New England states came up the idea of making a deal with the surrounding states that have casino gambling. He told them that he would not permit casinos to be established in his state, if they would pledge a portion of their states' revenues to his state's coffers.
The Mahoning Valley could adopt a similar tact: We could form an organization called the Mahoning Valley Gaming Board, which would negotiate with the horse-racing track operators across the border for the best financial deal. The money would go into a regional economic development fund to support the Youngstown/Warren Regional Airport and other projects of areawide impact. What would the operator get out of this? A pledge by the board to strongly encourage Mahoning Valley residents who gamble to spend their money at that particular track.
And that would encourage all the operators across the border to contribute to the Valley's economic development in return for the board's not supporting a particular one.