Group sues Strickland, lottery over slots plan

By Marc Kovac

The plan is unconstitutional, opponents said.

COLUMBUS — An anti-gambling group filed suit Thursday against Gov. Ted Strickland and the Ohio Lottery Commission, with hopes of stopping plans to install slot machines at horse-racing tracks.

“The lottery is a carve-out made by the people of Ohio in their vote in 1973,” said Dave Zanotti, president and chief executive officer of the Ohio Policy Roundtable, lead plaintiff in the suit. “If the Legislature wants to amend the lottery, then it should have the decency according to constitutional provision to pass a constitutional amendment and then submit it to the voters and let them change the lottery that they created as opposed to doing it by executive order in direct defiance to two constitutional provisions the people passed and four specific votes.”

He added, “What kind of governor, by executive fiat, overthrows that? There’s over 10 million votes that have been cast.”

The roundtable, a public-policy nonprofit that has campaigned against four earlier attempts to bring casino-style gaming to the state, submitted the lawsuit to the Ohio Supreme Court. Lawmakers granted justices “exclusive original jurisdiction” over constitutional challenges to the new video-lottery terminals.

Earlier this year, in an attempt to balance a tight budget, Strickland threw his support behind a plan to allow slot machines at the state’s seven horse-racing tracks. The decision was a departure from the governor’s earlier opposition to such a move but one made necessary, he said, because of economic circumstances.

Strickland subsequently issued an executive order, and lawmakers included provisions in the two-year budget, directing the Ohio Lottery Commission to develop rules for implementing the slots plan. They hope to have the units operational by May and have budgeted close to $1 billion in gambling proceeds for school funding.

But the roundtable argues that the constitutional amendment approved by voters in the early 1970s to create the lottery focused on ticket drawings, not slot machines.

The group says neither the Lottery Commission nor the governor has authority to expand the lottery to include casino-style gaming, which is illegal under state law. Voters have quashed plans to allow casinos in the state four times since 1990.

“I think many of them are unhappy with what the Legislature did,” said Ohio Sen. George Voinovich, a Republican who has campaigned against past casino issues, who participated in Thursday’s press conference. “It wasn’t brought up through the regular process. They kind of snuck it in at the last minute. And I think [voters are] very upset by that.”

The lawsuit also states that all lottery proceeds are to go to school funding, but the slots plan backed by lawmakers and the governor provides proceeds to racetrack owners.

Strickland and legislative leaders have said they believe the Lottery Commission already had the authority to offer video-lottery terminals among its portfolio of games.

The lawsuit is the second filed with the Supreme Court on the slots issue. A separate group had oral arguments this week in its case, seeking to put the video-lottery-terminal plan before voters.

The Ohio Policy Roundtable actively campaigned against every casino issue that has appeared on the ballot since 1990. It also opposes November’s Issue 3, which would allow casinos at specific sites in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo.