Gambling news from http://www.cleveland.com/
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson is ready to gamble.
Jackson on Wednesday announced he will support a November ballot proposal that would bring two slot machine parlors to the core of his struggling city.
Jackson said the prospect of 5,300 jobs and $75 million yearly in economic development money for the city and county are worth risking his political capital.
"I have to look out for the future of the city of Cleveland," Jackson said during an afternoon meeting with Plain Dealer editors.
"It would be imprudent of me not to position the city to benefit from it."
Jackson was joined by City Council President Martin Sweeney, Cuyahoga County commissioners and business and labor leaders in extolling the positives of Learn and Earn.
The group hammered out the proposal this spring with the state's seven horse track owners, Forest City Enterprises Inc. and investor Jeff Jacobs.
The Learn and Earn issue would amend the Ohio Constitution to allow 31,000 slot machines at nine sites, including Forest City's Tower City complex and Jacobs' Nautica Entertainment Complex.
Learn and Earn, soon to be certified for the November ballot, would generate some $2.8 billion yearly in slots revenue, according to estimates. About $850 million would go to college scholarships and more than $200 million to economic development across Ohio.
In Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, supporters estimate a $184 million yearly benefit from Learn and Earn, including scholarship and development money.
Business leaders predict another $600 million in capital investment in the county, with the construction of slots parlors, hotels and related development at Tower City, Nautica and the Thistledown horse track in North Randall.
Lawyer Fred Nance, head of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, noted that Ohioans are spending $925 million yearly at casinos in West Virginia, Indiana and Michigan.
In Ohio, "we bear many of the social ills with none of the upside," Nance said.
The local leaders praised other features of Learn and Earn, including:
An estimated $28 million a year for gambling-addiction treatment and prevention. It's the largest budget of its kind in the country, Nance claimed.
Language that guarantees Learn and Earn funds will not be offset by cuts in state funding.
That's what happened to casino receipts in Detroit, Jackson said. The city is "worse off" despite three casinos, the mayor said.
A 2010 vote in Cuyahoga County that would allow the slots parlors to add table games and become full-fledged casinos.
It would allow the slots parlors in Cuyahoga County, along with the Northfield track that straddles the Cuyahoga-Summit border, to become the only casinos in the state.
That has angered Ohioans to the south.
Columbus business leaders have said they oppose Learn and Earn because Cleveland casinos would leave central Ohio at a disadvantage in the competition for entertainment dollars.
Local leaders acknowledge they have reservations about Learn and Earn - in particular that it grants Forest City and Jacobs a constitutional monopoly on developing casinos downtown. "But they are the ones bearing the risk," said Nance, noting that Forest City, Jacobs and track owners are financing a $15 million to $20 million campaign for Learn and Earn.
They face an uphill battle. Casino proposals have been soundly defeated twice in Ohio.
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