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After Casinos, Ohio Considering Putting Slots At Tracks

Posted on June 9th, 2010

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After rejecting several attempts in the past years to legalize casino gambling in the state, voters in Ohio finally approved last November a constitutional amendment authorizing four new casinos, one each in the cities of Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Toledo, thanks to an efficient campaign effort carried out to promote the issue. Daniel Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers will develop two of the casinos and Penn National Gaming will own the other two.

The state is looking to casinos to address the rising rate of unemployment by providing the much-needed jobs and to generate additional revenues to help fix the budget. State lawmakers recently passed legislation on casino rules that would govern the gambling activity in the state that is still in its early stage of development.

But even before the casino developers could begin construction, Gov. Ted Srickland, who is serving his first term as governor of Ohio, is again mulling over the prospect of setting up slot machines at the state’s seven racetracks. Last Sunday night, around 400 horsemen from both Harness Racing and Thoroughbred Racing got together at Elizabeth Alexander’s Eutrophia Farms in a meeting with Gov. Strickland to again put forward their appeal for slots at the state’s seven racetracks.

In July of 2009, the governor approved the setting up of video lottery terminals at racetracks in order to help ease the budget crisis, but his proposal encountered a number of setbacks, such as the enactment of a bill last year allowing the four casinos and a referendum in November this year giving voters the option to allow the VLTs at tracks or not.

Strickland told the gathering that he will sign legislation allowing slots at racetracks after the issue’s legal problems have been resolved so that conditions at the state’s struggling racetracks would improve. The issue is still pending in court after some groups like the LetOhioVote.org exerted every effort to delay the settlement of the matter.

The governor, a Democrat from Lucasville, promised to move forward with the VLTs once things have been straightened out. He said he is still hopeful that those opposing slots at tracks would give up their request for a referendum.

Strickland said he was happy to be in the meeting and speaking before the horsemen. The governor fielded questions from group leaders and listened to every point raised concerning the horse racing industry. He thanked those people who supplied him with more information about the industry that made him more knowledgeable and aware of the significance of the industry as well as its needs.

He disclosed that he did not support the casinos, because he believed that if the state allowed any form of expanded gambling, it should take place at the racetracks because he said it is there that gambling activity has been occurring and accepted. He also vowed to do everything in his power to see that the proposal on the ballot in November fails. Racing tracks across the United States are in a dire financial situation.

A number of states have decided to enact laws allowing expanded gambling at their tracks, although some, like Kentucky, have continued to refuse to endorse the option.

Concerned horsemen in Ohio have time and again said that 15,000 workers are at risk of losing their jobs if expanded gambling continues to be an elusive thing for the racetracks and the tracks’ purses remain at their present state. Some tracks like Scioto Downs have announced their intention of shutting down if the referendum is successful. Horsemen are already planning to leave the state to look for more well-paying jobs.