Plan surfaces for city gambling votes

Andrew Welsh-Huggins

Thursday, April 29, 2004 | 9:18 a.m.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Polls that looked at Ohioans' willingness to support slot machines at racetracks found strong support for using profits to fund college scholarships, guarantee increases in school funding and provide money for preschool programs, slots proponents say.

There was no support for a plan to let cities vote on bringing in casinos, an idea that racetracks are convinced would kill the proposal.

"We have gone through this study for two years now -- it is very, very clear that Ohioans are not going to support freestanding casinos," said Charles Ruma, owner of Beulah Park in suburban Columbus. "Every single poll we've seen says absolutely no, it's not going to work."

Cities could vote on casinos and thousands of electronic slot machines would be installed at Ohio racetracks, under a new legislative proposal that backers hope to put on the November ballot.

House Speaker Larry Householder said last week he believes cities would view the casino idea as a positive trade-off given that rural areas benefit from racetracks through the sale of grain for horses.

"So this is a way to allow the urban areas to also have a benefit," Householder said.

Democrats and Republicans resurrected the slot machine plan with a proposal to split the revenue between schools and college scholarships. Householder raised the possibility of casinos in cities Wednesday.

Householder said the casino proposal was in an "infancy stage" only.

"If you're going to have video lottery terminals at racetracks, probably the cities, the urban areas, would probably view the ability to put casinos in as something that's positive," said Householder, a Glenford Republican.

Ruma said racetracks are ready to launch their own petition drive to put the proposal on the November ballot if lawmakers fail in this latest effort.

Gov. Bob Taft said he's opposed to any form of casino gambling.

He said "any kind of large-scale video slot machines at racetracks ... basically amounts to casino gambling, that the people of Ohio have twice defeated."

The slot proposal is the latest legislative attempt to follow the lead of West Virginia and other states and tap what one estimate says is hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue for Ohio.

The new proposal would fund college scholarships and guarantee increases in future school funding budgets.

The proposed amendment would require lawmakers to budget money for schools out of the state's general fund, then use the slot machine money to guarantee an increase on top of the basic amount, said Sen. Lou Blessing, a Cincinnati Republican.

"So you can't just move money around -- it's got to be for an increase," Blessing said.

Republicans want to see about half the money go to scholarships and half to schools, including money for early childhood programs.

Polls found strong support for early childhood programs, said Sen. C.J. Prentiss, a Cleveland Democrat.

What that says to someone with young children is, "'I can take advantage of this as well as somebody who's got kids that's ready to go off to school,"' Prentiss said. "So it hits both ends of the spectrum and it answers a great need.

Placing 2,500 slots on Ohio's seven racetracks could raise between $410 million and $820 million a year for the state, according to an October analysis by the Legislative Service Commission, a bipartisan agency that studies the financial impact of bills.

Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken said the casino proposal was long overdue. He noted that an Indiana casino is packed with cars from his city.

"I don't know whether Cincinnatians would decide they want a casino or not, but they should at least be given the right to make that decision," said Luken, a Democrat.