Gambling news from http://www.cleveland.com/
A state surrounded by gambling and desperate for cash to fund college education and to boost the economy should embrace slot machines in November, says a leader of Cleveland's chamber of commerce.
But the ballot proposal to allow slot machines at Ohio's horse tracks and in downtown Cleveland will suck a couple billion dollars yearly out of Ohioans' wallets, to the detriment of the economy, says Roy Brooks, a finance professor at John Carroll University.
A noon debate Tuesday at the Corporate Club at Landerhaven previewed what will be hot-button gambling issues in the coming months, as the Ohio Learn and Earn Committee works on gathering the 323,000 valid signatures it needs for a slots-parlor proposal.
Learn and Earn, backed by most of the state's seven horse tracks, Forest City Enterprises Inc. and developer Jeff Jacobs, would bring 31,500 slot machines to the state and generate an estimated $2.8 billion a year in revenue.
Some $900 million of that would go to cover college-tuition costs through scholarships for high school graduates, and an additional $200 million would go to economic development, including about $70 million for Cleveland and Cuyahoga County.
If the issue passes in November, Cuyahoga County voters could decide in 2010 to add table games to four slots parlors in Cuyahoga County -- at Tower City and the Nautica Entertainment Complex, in downtown Cleveland; at Thistledown racetrack in North Randall; and at Northfield racetrack in Northfield, on the Summit-Cuyahoga County border.
They would be the only sites in the state with full-fledged casinos and would generate thousands of jobs, said Learn and Earn supporters.
Covering college costs could transform a state that needs a boost in the knowledge economy, said lawyer Fred Nance, head of the board at the Greater Cleveland Partnership and one of Tuesday's panelists.
"We need a gigantic shot in the arm," Nance told a crowd of about 200.
The proposed amendment to the Ohio Constitution would specify that gambling revenue would supplement, and not replace, current state funding for higher education and economic development, Nance said.
Locally, gambling revenue could be used to pay for a convention center, Nance said.
But Brooks and another panelist said it was "socially unconscionable to get $900 million for education but take away $3 billion from our citizens."
That's a loss of money for local entertainment venues, Brooks said. Gamblers could take on higher debt and cut spending in vital areas, such as retirement plans, Brooks said.
And profits won't necessarily stay here -- out-of-state companies, such as Harrah's Entertainment Inc., could own or manage the gambling sites, Brooks said.
Brent Larkin, editorial page director for The Plain Dealer and a third member of the Landerhaven panel, said he was troubled that Learn and Earn "was built to save the racetrack industry."
A number of tracks are in rural locations and will offer little economic spin-off, Larkin said.
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