Churches near racino recommend against gambling

By ROBERT CONNELLY

rconnelly@vindy.com

AUSTINTOWN

The small Log Cabin Church of Austintown at 565 N. Canfield-Niles Road situated itself in 2010 near trees and land that had been for sale for years.

The landscape changed last May, when construction at Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course began construction next door.

An electronic billboard went up, featuring an advertisement for Hollywood Gaming, about 15 feet from the church front door.

Terry and Nancy Snyder decided then to erect a cross that is connected to the Southern Baptist church.

The cross is tall, but not nearly as tall as the billboard.

“You have to recognize the fact that to look at that [billboard], they have to see the cross of Jesus Christ sitting right next to it. God has designed things. Nothing is all good, and nothing is all bad,” said Terry Snyder, pastor of Log Cabin.

The building is leased by the church.

Pastor Snyder didn’t have anything negative to say about the racino.

He’s thought about going to the facility to talk to Hollywood Gaming officials about potentially offering a Sunday service, but has yet to do so.

Yet, he is watchful.

“I’ve looked at statistics and the statistics on these types of establishments — not my opinion — but the statistics will bear out the fact that things that will increase most in the immediate proximity of them are things like suicide, divorce rates, bankruptcies,” Snyder said. “[Those are] things that are not productive to our community, and we’re here to serve the community.”

Casinos were hotly debated across the state in 2008. A lobbying effort locally to bring a fourth casino to Youngstown failed; it became Toledo’s casino after Issue 3 was approved by voters

in November 2009.

In 2008, Jun Koo, Ph. D., Abigail Horn, M.A., Mark S. Rosentraub, Ph. D. and Loreen Rugle, Ph. D. of Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University prepared “The Social Costs of Casino Gambling for Ohio: A Review of What is Known and Estimates of Future Expenses.”

They looked at many studies and tried to find a definitive link between casinos and those things that people expect when a casino moves into an area: increased crime, suicide and personal bankruptcies, among others.

“The essential question is whether gambling is the cause of an observed social problem or whether gambling is a symptom of an individual’s other psychological or physiological problem. If gambling is a symptom then the observed social costs in some of the estimates would still have taken place even if the gaming outlet was unavailable,” the study stated.

“However, it would be irresponsible to simply dismiss the social consequences of higher numbers of compulsive gamblers that will result as a result of increased access to gambling if casinos operate in Ohio.”

The study went on to offer advice on regulations, increased funding for gambling addiction, and other preventive measures the researchers thought would help gamblers in the state.

For that reason, Pastor Snyder is going to offer more office hours for Valley residents seeking spiritual help.

“If we were to focus on something like the temperance movement, or something like that, then we would have to take away from the real purpose of why we’re here — and that’s preaching the gospel,” he reasoned.

Both the Log Cabin Church and the Church of Jesus Christ, farther down state Route 46 at 185 N. Canfield-Niles Road, haven’t discussed the racino much with their congregations. Both churches’ leaders are more concerned with the impact of traffic.

DON’T GAMBLE, MEMBERS TOLD

“It’s just something that we don’t feel as a church and as a membership that we need to participate in,” said Mike Italiano, an elder with the Church of Jesus Christ. “Any form of entertainment that we choose has to be conducive with our walk with God; it’s as simple as that.

“Our recommendation to our membership is to avoid gambling.”

Italiano said the church has been in the Youngstown area since the 1920s and built its current building in 2004.

Both churches have small congregations: Log Cabin counts about 12, while Church of Jesus Christ counts about 30.

Both feature weekly meetings on top of Sunday services.

The Log Cabin Church is part of the Steel Valley Baptist Association and identifies itself as a Southern Baptist Church while Church of Jesus Christ is evangelical.

Italiano explained that the Church of Jesus Christ believes in the New Testament and using the Book of Mormon to clarify teachings in the New Testament. He stressed the membership is not Mormon; this is known as “Restored Gospel” in the religious community.

The church sits across Route 46 from property where owners are seeking to rezone their homes from residential to business. “We’re fully expecting to see a personality change in the neighborhood,” Italiano said.

Austintown Township trustees will make the final ruling on zoning at a 6 p.m. public meeting Sept. 29 at the township hall. Those residents had requested a change to B-2, a general business classification, but the Mahoning County Planning Commission on Aug. 26 had recommended against the change. Austintown zoning officials Sept. 4 recommended a change to B-1, professional services such as lawyer and dentist offices.

“If this [racino] is going to be a success — a big success — and they’re going to stay here, a lot of people have to lose a lot of money. That’s the only way it’s going to be a success,” Italiano said. “You can quote me on that.”