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After 20 years of saying no to gambling issues, Ohio voters Tuesday said yes to an initiated
ballot measure that amends the Ohio Constitution to permit one casino each to be built in
Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland and Toledo. (Photo/John Michael Spinelli)
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- After 20 years of saying no to gambling issues of one kind or another, and with 99.73 of statewide precincts reporting on Election Day 2009, Ohio voters, by a ratio of 53 percent for and 47 percent against, have said yes to allowing four Las Vegas-style casinos to be built in the state's largest cities.
As reported by the Live Unofficial Election Results posted and continuously updated site at the Ohio Secretary of State, Issue 3, the controversial statewide ballot that was an initiated amendment to the Ohio Constitution to permit one casino each in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo, hit the jackpot Tuesday instead of rolling craps, as has happened four times previously in the past two decades.
The amendment, backed by Cleveland Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert and Penn National Gaming, Inc., a casino operating company based in Pennsylvania, was sold largely based on its claims to create 34,000 temporary and permanent jobs, bring $1 billion in new private investment in the form of at least $250 million at each casino, provide $200 million in licensing fees and $600 million in tax revenues for the state, counties, cities and school districts that would come from a permanent, guaranteed tax of 33 percent on gross casino revenues.
Among supporters for Issue 3 was the Fraternal Order of Police, an assortment of trade labor unions and a long list of elected officials from local to state levels who backed the measure that between July and mid October had spent about $32 million to convince Ohio voters, who have watched as state revenues contracted, causing Gov. Ted Strickland to slash state spending including the downsizing of the state's workforce by about 5,000, that it was time for something new.
"We're going to deliver something very special," a reporter for the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer quoted Dan Gilbert saying after his professional basketball team beat Washington earlier in the evening. Gilbert's personal history during his years in college became a focus of opponents to the issue in the final weeks of the campaign. Gilbert owns rights for casinos in Cleveland and Cincinnati while Penn National will run Columbus and Toledo. The two partners say they will recruit investors for their casinos.
Frank Jackson, the mayor of Cleveland who won another term the same day, told his hometown newspaper this: "This is not a panacea, but it's a significant tool for the city of Cleveland. It's one more tool we can use to further the goals and vision of Cleveland." Another Clevelander, Jeff Jacobs, who owns gaming facilities in West Virginia and Pennsylvania and who wanted in but was denied a role into this deal, funded TruthPac, the opposition group to Issue 3.
Of Ohio's 88 counties, 31 approved the measure, including Cuyahoga, the state's most populous county, and counties surrounding it. The same was true for Hamilton County, anchored by the City of Cincinnati, and surrounding southwest Ohio counties. Franklin County, home to Columbus, the state capital, and its surrounding counties did not approve the measure. Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman and the city's power structure came out against Issue 3 in the final weeks of the campaign. The rest of Ohio, traditionally fiscally and socially conservative, predictably turned down the measure.
While many state lawmakers hopped on board the gambling train this time, others like TruthPac co-chair Lou Blessing, a Republican from Cincinnati, echoed what others, including Ted Strickland, said they would do if the issue passed. "We'll probably have to put another constitutional amendment on in May to correct some things to make it more fair for the people of Ohio," according to published reports.
Among the reasons argued by opponents of Issue 3 were that the tax rate of very low when compared to what other states who had bid it out were receiving. They also said charitable gambling could be banned and that a loophole existed for cash wagering and that information on the construction of the casinos themselves was lacking. A spokesperson for TruthPAC said that Issue 3 "is as flawed as the ones that voters have defeated before" and that like its predecessors, "this one is tilted in favor of the casinos and those are the people who wrote the plan and so far against the taxpayers."
With 3,126,795 total votes, 1,657,152 votes cast for it and 1,469,643 cast against it, Issue 3 won by a vote margin of approximately 187,509 or about 5.9 percent.
Follow me on Twitter @ohionewsbureau. Read more stories on people, politics and government in Ohio here.
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