Group working to bring in casino

By John W. Goodwin Jr.

Voter support is needed if the facility is to be built.

LIBERTY — The organization that hopes to have a casino built in Ohio has a new partnership with a casino company and made a stop in the Valley in hopes of driving local supporters to the polls in November.

Representatives of MyOhioNow.com, the organization vying for an Ohio casino, and representatives of Lakes Entertainment Inc. of Minnesota spoke with the media and the public Friday at a township hotel.

Timothy Cope, chief financial officer of Lakes Entertainment, said the company has a first-class $600 million-dollar facility planned for Clinton County in southern Ohio.

The plans call for 5,000 slot machines, 100 table games, a 1,500-room hotel, stores, entertainment bars and restaurants.

Before any of that is built, however, the group and company must bring the matter before voters, and to do that they need to collect signatures from 402,000 registered voters in the state.

Rick Lertzman, MyOhioNow.com, would not say how many signatures have been collected but did say the group is well on its way to surpassing the needed number.

He said the group is actually shooting for more than 700,000 signatures to be sure they have enough legitimate voters to qualify for the ballot.

Should the group manage to bring the matter to the ballot, a second obstacle would be to get voters to accept the idea of a casino in Ohio.

Casino gambling is illegal in the state, and Ohio voters have rejected casino-style gambling three times in the past 20 years.

Lertzman said getting that needed voter support is possible, but will not be easy.

“It’s still an uphill battle, but I think we will be very successful,” he said.

Lertzman said his optimism comes from the details of the proposal.

He said there are several benefits to Ohio in the proposal, including dividing 30 percent of the casino profits between all the state’s counties.

Estimates supplied by the company and MyOhioNow.com show Mahoning County collecting $4.8 million annually from the casino; Trumbull County would collect $4.2 million; and Columbiana would collect $2.1 million.

Cope said the proposal also will set aside 1 percent of casino profits to create a fund for individuals in the state with gambling addiction.

The proposal, he said, offers a list of other benefits to those living in the state.

“This is something that will bring upward of 5,000 jobs to Ohio and spread the wealth to all the counties equally. We think we finally have a good proposal for the state of Ohio,” he said.

“It’s all about jobs and making a major investment in the state, plus keeping people from leaving the state to gamble. We have a tag line ‘what plays in Ohio stays in Ohio.’”

If approved by voters in November, the company plans to spend 12 to 18 months doing pre-development work and another 18 months in construction.

Representatives said it would be three years before the facility is completed.

jgoodwin@vindy.com