Critics: Video lottery terminals could create Ohio casinos

Liz Sidoti

Wednesday, June 6, 2001 | 10:59 a.m.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Putting video lottery terminals in the state's racetracks ultimately would create casinos, which voters already have shot down twice, gambling opponents told a Senate committee Tuesday.

"VLTs are called the crack cocaine of gambling," Tom Smith, director for public policy of the Ohio Council of Churches told the Senate Ways and Means Committee, which was considering a resolution that would let voters decide whether to put the terminals in the seven racetracks.

"Please don't take the easy way out in putting it on the ballot for Ohio voters to decide," Smith said.

Supporters of the measure, however, told the committee that if 1,500 VLTs were placed at the racetracks, between $700 million and $800 million over two years could be generated. This would occur at a time when the state budget is tight because of a mandate by the Ohio Supreme Court that the state must overhaul its school funding system.

The resolution would require three-fifths approval of both the House and Senate before it would reach voters in November. Gov. Bob Taft, a Republican opposed to video lottery terminals, does not need to support the issue for it to go to voters.

Sen. Louis Blessing is a Republican from Cincinnati who sponsored the resolution and is chairman of the committee. He said that the resolution wouldn't expand gambling, but actually would restrict it by saying exactly what types of games can be operated at what locations.

Timothy A. Kelly, a visiting research fellow at the Institute of Public Policy at George Mason University in Virginia, told the committee that the resolution is flawed.

He said that putting video lottery terminals in racetracks creates "quasi-casinos" and Ohio voters already rejected Ohio allowing casinos issues on ballots in 1990 and 1996.

David Hunt, a detective with the Franklin County sheriff's office who specializes in illegal gambling, argued that allowing video lottery terminals in the racetracks will only increase the amount of illegal gambling across the state.

"I find it ironic that I arrest individuals operating the same kind of machines the state is proposing," Hunt said.

But when Blessing asked Hunt whether he found much illegal gambling occurring at the racetracks, Hunt said, "No."

Blessing sponsored the resolution as a way to generate additional revenue for the state.

Allan Rachles, director of Crow, Chizek and Co. LLP, an Indianapolis-based accounting and consulting firm, testified that the state could come up with an extra $422 million a year to use toward school funding or put in the state's general fund.

Moreover, a survey by Leff & Associates of Columbus, a marketing firm hired by a consortium of racetrack owners, showed that three out of four Ohioans favor allowing video lottery terminals in racetracks.