Mark Knows It All

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,