Charity poker considered to be test-drive for proposed Ohio casinos

Thomas J. Sheeran

Tuesday, June 21, 2005 | 9:16 a.m.

CLEVELAND -- Backers and opponents of casinos agree that a summer-long series of charity poker tournaments in the Flats nightclub district amounts to a test drive for legalizing casino gambling in Ohio.

"I think casino gambling is coming," city Councilman Joe Cimperman, a casino backer who represents the Flats district, said Monday. Otherwise, he said, "We're going to continue to see billions of dollars leave Ohio."

Jeff Jacobs, whose Nautica entertainment complex pioneered the redevelopment of the Flats 20 years ago, organized the four-day poker tournaments in an air-conditioned tent with an eye toward increasing public acceptance of casinos. Ohio voters have rejected proposals to legalize casino gambling twice since 1990.

"We're making a statement," Jacobs said Monday. Support has increased for casinos in Ohio as people recognize the loss of gambling and entertainment dollars to neighboring states, he said.

Not so, said the United Methodist Church, whose social principals call gambling "a menace to society" and said it would oppose any casino proposal.

As for the poker tournament, "We would discourage any of our congregations from doing any fund-raising based on any kind of game of chance," said Tom Slack, spokesman for the UMC's West Ohio conference representing 1,200 congregations.

Three competing interests hope Ohio voters will approve casino-type gambling, including Cleveland's proposal backed by Mayor Jane Campbell. The others are backed by American Indian tribes hoping to build gambling resorts and a coalition including horse tracks and developers.

The poker tournaments will be held on a Thursday-Sunday schedule through Sept. 4, with nonprofit groups providing volunteer workers and pocketing the proceeds from seat fees up to $15 hourly. Players keep their table winnings.

Beth Rosenblum, executive director of the Cleveland Baseball Federation, which sponsors sports programs for 8,000 youngsters, said her group hoped to raise $50,000 to $100,000 from its July 14-17 tournament, or 40 percent of its $250,000 annual fund-raising. A preliminary estimate showed the Cleveland Police Athletic League netted about $10,000 a day during the first four-day tournament, when some tables went idle.

Rosenblum said the group welcomed the additional fund-raising opportunity, but was neutral on whether casinos should be legalized.

She said she understood the tournament was a test-run for casinos and said Jacobs had been frank about his goal. "He wants to be included if casino gambling comes to Cleveland and I don't blame him. That's his business," she said.

Gambling opponent David Zanotti, president of the Ohio Roundtable, a conservative public-policy group, belittled the tournament as "no big attraction."

"This is a public relations spin to change the law to make money," Zanotti said. "It is self-serving to use charities the way he has. He's using them as guinea pigs or circus clowns so he can go ahead and change the law."

Don Vinton, 55, of Sandusky, wearing a cap from Detroit's Motor City Casino, turned out for the first weekend tournament without playing and liked what he saw.

"It's ridiculous all the Ohio money that is going to Michigan," according to Vinton, who said without mentioning amounts that he has won at dice tables but lost at poker in Detroit. Vinton said he would "absolutely" return to Cleveland to wager if a casino was built.