The newly elected Speaker of the Ohio State House of Representatives said he is willing to consider casino gambling as a tactic to increase state revenue.
Democrat Armond Budish of Beachwood said gambling is one realistic option to help meet the anticipated $7 billion shortfall in the state's two-year budget.
Ohio voters have turned down casino gambling referenda four times, but gambling executives have already regrouped.
Budish has already conferred with executives of Penn National Gaming Inc. which owns Toledo Raceway in northwest Ohio and the Argosy riverboat casino in southeast Indiana, in the Cincinnati suburbs.
Gov. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio) opposed expanded casino gambling but did support the expansion of Keno to the lottery games offered in Ohio last year.
Advocates said casinos may boost gambling at Ohio’s seven horse tracks in Ohio, while raising $700 million annually and creating more than 16,000 jobs. So far, Keno gambling machines added to the horse tracks have not met initially rosy projections, however.
Last week, John Haseley, Strickland’s chief of staff, met with representatives of Penn National as well as anti-gambling representatives of the Ohio Council of Churches and the United Methodist Church.
Without the in-fighting and major campaign opposition from out-of-state casino operators like Penn National, and an Ohio casino vote has better odds of passing, said state Sen. Bill Seitz, a Republican from Green Township, referring to the $38 million spent by Argosy’s owner to defeat the Nov. 4 ballot issue.
That plan proposed a $600 million casino resort in Wilmington, Clinton County, by MyOhioNow. MyOhioNow’s developers said they are working on a new ballot issue this year for Wilmington and up to five other sites including Cincinnati.
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