Casino Petition Filed With State; Rival Plan Off Until 1997

Tuesday, Aug. 6, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

That could hurt the odds of Alan Spitzer gaining voter approval for up to eight riverboat casinos. His 1990 proposal was opposed by 62 percent of Ohioans voting on the issue.

Spitzer personally delivered his 577,666 petition signatures to state officials Monday. He refused to get drawn into an early debate with Rick Lertzman, who put his own casino plans on hold.

Spitzer was unaware when he was delivering the petitions that Lertzman had decided to hold off filing his petitions until next year. Later, he said through a spokesman that he wouldn't comment on Lertzman's decision or his criticism of the Spitzer proposal.

Lertzman said he had talked with Spitzer's group several times and there was one sticking point: Spitzer backers would not support a casino at the Fairport Harbor location owned by Lertzman's Buckeye Extravaganza Inc., based in Pepper Pike, a Cleveland suburb.

Lertzman said he would ask fraternal and veterans' groups that helped his petition drive to oppose the Spitzer-backed referendum. That opposition could be crucial to defeating the measure, he said.

"Our group genuinely believes that two gambling initiatives will split the vote on this already fragile issue," Lertzman said in deciding to delay his petition filing until 1997.

Secretary of State Bob Taft said it would take five to six weeks to check Spitzer's signatures. To force a vote to allow casino gambling, 335,000 valid signatures are required.

"Ohioans told us they wanted a very limited form of casino gaming. We put together exactly what Ohioans gave us. This is the product of research we did throughout the state of Ohio," Spitzer said.

Advocates of both proposals say casino gambling will bring money and jobs to Ohio. Opponents, including Gov. George Voinovich, say casinos are anti-family and would hinder other forms of economic development.

Spitzer's proposal would allow riverboat casinos in the Cincinnati, Cleveland, Lorain and Youngstown areas, with a maximum of eight statewide.

The Lertzman proposal also would spread eight riverboat casinos among Cincinnati, Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Lorain and Sandusky. It also would allow gambling machines in private clubs.

Lertzman said his group had collected about 500,000 signatures. He would say only that the drive cost more than $100,000.

The signatures can be kept indefinitely, he said. The only risk is if a signer dies or is removed from the voter rolls.