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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2009 > July > 07 > Entry
Senate GOP pitches new gambling idea
After picking apart Gov. Ted Strickland’s plan for slots at Ohio’s racetracks, Senate Republicans are pitching a constitutional amendment that would require voter approval in November. And the governor doesn’t like it at all.
Senate President Bill Harris outlined the new plan to Strickland in a two-page letter on Tuesday, July 7.
“The current VLT (video lottery terminal) proposal picks winners and losers and creates a gambling monopoly for a handful of predetermined property owners. We think that’s wrong,” Harris wrote. “A constitutional amendment could be constructed to ensure a fair, open, and competitive process for distributing licenses that would get the best deal for the taxpayers of Ohio.”
The Senate proposal is to competitively bid the 10-year licenses, starting at not less than $65 million per license. It does not specify where the slot machines would be placed.
“I don’t think it’s an answer to our budget problem,” Strickland said.
Lawmakers and Strickland are at a stalemate on how to close a $3.2 billion gap in the upcoming two-year state operating budget. Strickland proposed $2.4 billion in spending cuts plus adding VLTs at the racetracks to raise $933 million.
The state has been operating on weekly interim budgets since July 1 but the stopgap spending plans cost the state at least $13.7 million a week in lost fees and federal money, Strickland said.
Strickland said a small number of senators are blocking progress on the budget but declined to name them.
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Comments
By Paul J.
July 7, 2009 3:08 PM | Link to this
Forget it OHIO!!! Keep sending your money to all neighbor states, and Ontario. They need your money for their budget short-falls!!!By Nat
July 7, 2009 2:51 PM | Link to this
It would be nice if these senators came up with some ideas of their own on how to solve the budget crisis rather than dismiss everything the governor suggests.By Alan
July 7, 2009 2:19 PM | Link to this
Finally!!! Some in the government took a Que. from IN and Penn. These licenses make a very competitive bidding process. For example: in Penn. The state said “we have so many licenses, Gaming Companies, what can you do for Penn? Open ended. Gaming companies developed plans that invested 350 million in depressed cities redeveloping old steel mills and demonstrated what impact they would have in the communities. Communities Win, People Win, Crime will go down. Case study: Evansville, IN. The Mayor should be all over this. Dayton needs a casino on the Riverfront if Dayton ever wants to be great again. DAYTON CAN BE GREAT, DON’T GIVE UP HOPE!By itsmyperogative
July 7, 2009 1:32 PM | Link to this
And spending a night out on the town having dinner, drinks and seeing a movie nets you nothing in the end so what is the difference between an expensive meal and then two over-priced movie tickets and having nothing to show for it and spending the same amount on lottery tickets or slot machines. I just wish Big Brother would stop telling me how to spend my money.By Gary
July 7, 2009 1:21 PM | Link to this
Makes more sense than Strickland. Sounds like he is in somebody’s pocket. But in the end, gambling does not create new money. It only takes money from rent, food, bill payments, for a short term thrill of the bet. I haven’t heard what percentage of the bets will be required to be returned as winnings, but remember the OH lottery only retrns 42% of the money bet. Those are sucker bets, plain and simple.