Casino Ohio

I have always been a proponent of legalized gambling in Ohio. As I watched other states build casinos, I wondered how Ohio could let gambling revenue leave the state. Our budget is in shambles. Our schools are in need of funds. Our libraries are closing. The demographics of the state, especially in southern Ohio with its strong fundamentalist bent, tend to stack the deck against gambling initiatives. Initiative after initiative has gone down to defeat in Ohio.

They are now trying it once again. This time, the constitutional amendment would allow one casino each in Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, and Toledo, with the state revenue being shared equally by all of Ohio’s counties. The Cincy casino will be located close to an area decimated by job losses, numbering in the tens of thousands over the past 5 years with the closing of Airborne Express and numerous auto manufacturing plants and its attendant suppliers in the Dayton area. The promise of 35,000 jobs is almost too good to pass up, notwithstanding the legitimacy of the job production claims. Ditto for Toledo.

The local Democratic Party chairman, Boss Betras, is opposed to the gambling initiative because a casino will not be located here. I am neutral as to that particular argument as I have concluded that appendage economic development around these casinos is negligible at best. Just drive down to Mountaineer and look at the hotels and restaurants and all the other businesses that have developed around it. What’s that? Oh ya!!! There aren’t any. The area is just as depressed now as it was when it Waterford Park years ago.

This time around, I am going to vote against Ohio’s gaming initiative; not because I oppose gambling, but because I think it will be an economic fiasco and not deliver near the economic benefit the proponents say it will. The time to do the casino thing was 10 years ago. That horse has left the barn.

Ohio is surrounded by casinos. In this area there is Mountaineer 40 minutes away in West Virginia. There are two casinos around Pittsburgh, the latest being the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh by the stadiums, and the Meadows which is south of Pittsburgh with easy access to southeastern Ohio. From Ashtabula there is the Presque Isle Casino located in Erie, PA. From Toledo, there are three casinos in Detroit, and one in Windsor, Canada. There are numerous Indian casinos operating in Michigan. From Cincinnati there are several riverboat casinos located in Indiana within hour’s drive.

This leads me to the question as to just how many casinos a given area can support. Economic development would be a major plus if there were just a few games in town. But casinos are proliferating all over the place as states attempt to address budget problems with the promise of untold gambling riches. Certainly the Youngstown area is already served by three casinos within an hour’s drive. Is this part of the United States reaching the point of casino saturation and diminishing returns? Will the downside to gambling, which primarily affects the poorer segments of our society, outweigh the benefit received from generated taxes? There is no more of a regressive tax than a slot machine.

A 78 year old man came into my office recently. He was retired and a widower. He blew his entire retirement nest egg at Mountaineer, including all of the equity in his paid-off house through a reverse mortgage. That equaled over $160,000.00 over a 3 year period, and that is unconscionable. With casino saturation, how many more of these folks will there be? Ultimately, he will end up a burden to the state through Medicaid; and that is the big economic question. Will the returns of a casino in a saturated market generate enough state revenue to cover the burdens of state expenses that may result? I’m not so sure.

Think about it. Now, which way to the penny slots?

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