Gambling news from http://www.ohio.com/
CINCINNATI - The fight over a proposal to allow slot-machine gambling in Ohio boils down to a clash of business interests and a dizzying assortment of numbers.
Learn and Earn, the campaign behind Issue 3, estimates that 31,500 slots in the state would generate $853 million a year to help defray the costs of higher education, based on gross proceeds of $2.8 billion. But the state\'s Office of Budget and Management concludes that the state can support only 10,035 machines, raising about $324 million annually for scholarships.
The proposal, backed by a group of racetrack owners and casino developers, would allow slots at Ohio\'s seven horse tracks and at two freestanding sites in downtown Cleveland.
Ohio\'s horse industry loves the proposal, which promises to add $170 million a year to race purses. That would attract better horses to state tracks and raise the quality of racing and breeding overall, supporters say.
\"People lose sight that this is an agricultural industry,\" said John Engelhardt, a spokesman with River Downs race track near Cincinnati. \"And it\'s an industry we\'ve seen in steady decline in Ohio.\"
Ohioans voted down casino proposals in 1990 and 1999. Opponents of the current plan argue the ballot issue aims to change the state constitution to benefit a select group of businessmen. They also predict that the slot machines will create more gambling addiction problems.
Many church leaders oppose slots on moral grounds and plan to take their message to their pulpits. Opponents also include Sen. George Voinovich and Gov. Bob Taft, both Republicans.
Politicians and business interests in Columbus don\'t want a casino there, said Charles Ruma, chairman of Learn and Earn and principal owner of Beulah Park, a track in the Columbus suburb of Grove City.
\"It\'s hard for me to believe that George Voinovich and Bob Taft, who have worked hard at expanding the lottery - which is the worst bet in the history of gambling - can be so hypocritical to say that slot machines are bad,\" Ruma said.
A message seeking comment was left Sunday with David Zanotti, co-chair of Vote No Casinos and president of the Ohio Roundtable, a public advocacy group that successfully fought previous gambling proposals.
The public seems to have an insatiable appetite for slot machines, said Ed Feigenbaum, whose monthly newsletter Indiana Gaming Insight analyzes trends in Indiana.
Feigenbaum doesn\'t think the possible addition of slots in Ohio and Pennsylvania would saturate the regional market.
\"One business you do not see going bankrupt in times of economic trouble is casinos,\" he said.
Learn and Earn\'s expectation of $2.8 billion a year in gross proceeds by 2012 seems reasonable, Feigenbaum said, considering that Indiana\'s casinos had gross revenues of $2.42 billion in 2005. That includes table games like blackjack and craps, which are not included in Issue 3.
The OBM study estimates proceeds of just over $1 billion, beginning in fiscal year 2009.
On a busy weekend night, each slot machine can net a casino about $280 an hour, said Marty Dorf, whose Dayton-area business, Slotmachines USA, sells reconditioned slots.
Casinos expect each machine to get about 12 plays per minute, Dorf said.
\"People take their whole paychecks to casinos,\" Dorf said. \"I think one of the fiscal problems Ohio has had is that people take their money to other states. That\'s money that\'s not being spent in Ohio for groceries, vehicles or rent.\"
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