New casino proposals crop up in Ohio

STAFF AND WIRE REPORT

COLUMBUS — Casino advocates have approached Ohio leaders with competing proposals for full-scale gambling sites, pitching them as an ideal way to increase revenue in the face of a projected $7 billion deficit.

A lobbyist for the gaming company behind Toledo’s Raceway Park discussed the plan with Gov. Ted Strickland’s staff and Senate President Bill Harris last week.

A draft memo obtained by The Columbus Dispatch shows that Penn National Gaming has a proposal to build casinos at Ohio’s seven racetracks and at stand-alone sites in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus.

The Pennsylvania-based company would like lawmakers to sponsor a ballot measure for voters to consider in November, the Dispatch reported Saturday.

The two Cleveland-area developers behind that proposal are preparing a signature-gathering effort to place their own ballot measure on this November’s ballot. Their plan would also build casinos in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus, and possibly in Toledo and Youngstown.

Penn National spent $36 million last fall to defeat a ballot measure that would have allowed a $600 million casino resort in southwest Ohio.

Voters in Ohio soundly rejected that proposal and three other gambling ballot initiatives since 1990.

Those in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana have followed suit with one exception — a 2006 proposal for slot machines at two locations in Cleveland and at the state’s seven horse tracks was approved by a majority of voters in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

Even a 1996 proposal for riverboat casinos in four counties, including Mahoning, was rejected by voters in the Mahoning Valley’s three counties.

Penn National’s proposal has been discussed for more than 18 months, said Jerry Chabler, one of five Ohio State Racing Commission board members. The idea appears to have the racing board’s unanimous support, he said.

“Would I like to see it?” Chabler asked. “Yes.”

Staff for Strickland and Harris both insisted that their meetings with Columbus lobbyist Darryl Dever don’t indicate that casino gambling will be part of the solution to the state’s budget shortfall.

Strickland still opposes the expansion of gambling in Ohio, but the governor also believes it would be unwise not to listen to gambling advocates, considering the state’s dire budget problems and the ongoing national recession, Dailey said.

Still, expanded gambling will not be part of Strickland’s proposed two-year budget to be sent to lawmakers next month, Dailey said. Senate Republicans also will not put forth a casino proposal, Harris said.

“I tried to be as up-front as I could,” Harris said of his meeting with Dever. “I said we would certainly be open to talking to the governor about it, but if they’re dependent on the Senate taking the initiative, that’s not going to happen.”