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Gambling laws confuse issues
(by Dave Lange - October 01, 2009)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Gambling laws confuse issues
I've read various reports and analyses of the latest casino issue heading for the Ohio ballot and the on-again-off-again scheme to install slot machines in the state's seven horse-racing tracks. But I'm still confused.
Gambling is legal in Ohio, depending on the circumstances.
We know about the Ohio Lottery, which is just as capable of taking poor people's paychecks as an AARP bus trip to Erie, Pa., Salamanca, N.Y., or Wheeling, W.Va. The voters approved the lottery some years ago, based on politicians' promises to give the proceeds to public education. But it gave the politicians an excuse to take other money away from education, and the voters wonder why their local schools keep asking for more taxes.
Even before the lottery, Ohio residents could bet money on the horses at the racetracks, which is gambling, just like slot machines. But slot machines were illegal in our state, until Gov. Ted Strickland, a former minister, had an epiphany and decided they're less evil than raising taxes. So he gave the horse tracks the go-ahead to install slot machines. But some holier-than-thou organization protested his right to do such a thing without a vote of the people, and the even holier Ohio Supreme Court agreed.
Some people argue that, unlike slot machines, there is skill involved in betting on the horses. Others say that poker is a game of skill, but nobody will be playing poker at the racetracks anytime soon.
After a group of after-hours poker players was robbed at gunpoint of $78,000 in cash and jewelry at what police described as a friendly game in Solon last spring, I'm not sure if they'll be playing again anytime soon either. According to police, such poker games are legal in Ohio, as long as there is no cut for the house.
Aside from racetracks, which get a cut from gamblers' losses, charitable organizations such as churches also can legally profit from gambling games such as bingo in Ohio. Some such benefits also have been highly beneficial for the professional organizers who operated them.
Although I do recall the statewide vote for the Ohio Lottery, I don't remember any vote to permit gambling on horse races, church bingo or after-hours poker games. Maybe that's where the governor got the notion that he could help balance the state budget with taxes from slot machines at the racetracks without a vote of the people.
Apparently, nobody has the notion that gambling casinos can be built in Ohio without voters' approval, because one casino operator after another keeps putting issues on the ballot. We rejected casinos for eight Ohio cities in 1990, eight riverboat casinos in 1996, racetrack slot machines in 2006 and a $600 million casino in rural Clinton County just last year.
This time, the out-of-state gambling interests are asking voters to allow casinos in four Ohio cities, including Cleveland. They point out in their ads that Ohio gamblers take $1 billion to neighboring states every year, and it could help the state's economy to keep some of that money at home. Their opponents' ads are financially backed by out-of-state gambling interests who want Ohio gamblers to continue blowing their money elsewhere.
I don't believe casino gambling and slots at the tracks are good answers to Ohio's fiscal woes. But they're slightly better than no answer at all -- which is what the state government has been giving for far too long.
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