Questions & Answers on Ohio gambling law

COLUMBUS (AP) — Gov. Ted Strickland wants the Legislature to approve putting lottery-run slot machines at Ohio’s race tracks. The Ohio Senate wants voters to decide the question on the November ballot, or for Strickland to use his executive authority without a vote of the Legislature.

Here are some questions and answers about Ohio gambling law, and the debate over which method to establish slots is the most legally sound.

Q. Does the Ohio Constitution prohibit gambling?

A. No. The Ohio Constitution prohibits lotteries, but makes an exception for the Legislature to authorize a state agency to conduct a lottery. Ohio opted to take the question to voters, who in 1972 approved creation of the Ohio Lottery.

Q. Does the Ohio Constitution define a lottery?

A. No. The Constitution left the definition open, and courts have defined the lottery as when a person pays a price for a chance to win a prize. The Legislature has so far defined the lottery to involve the sale of “tickets.”

Q. Does Ohio criminal law restrict gambling?

A. Yes. The law prohibits “schemes of chance,” including slot machines and gambling devices.

Q. Given these different restrictions, is a constitutional amendment needed to ensure that the placement of slots at race tracks survives a legal challenge?

A. Attorneys disagree. Most say amending the Constitution isn’t necessary because it already makes an exception for state-run lotteries and doesn’t specifically define them. Based on the courts’ definition of a lottery, a game where a person pays money for a chance to win a prize, Mark Tucker of Benesch Friedlander in Columbus said that the slot machines would be considered legal without having to change the Constitution.

But Chad Readler, an attorney with Jones Day in Columbus, said that without a constitutional amendment specifically defining the lottery to include slot machines, a strong legal argument could be made that the machines are far outside the definition of a “lottery” that Ohioans expected when they approved the state lottery in 1972.