While all seven horse racing tracks in Ohio have filed applications with the Ohio Lottery Commission to operate video slot machines, only two of those tracks — both in northern Ohio — met the deadline for initial $13 million payments for gaming licenses. Insiders say the still uncertain future of expanded gambling in the Buckeye State have made it difficult for tracks to line up investors for the slot machines the Ohio Lottery hopes to have operating at the seven tracks by May.
While Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland — with the tacit approval of legislators — issued an executive order to allow video slot machines and the Ohio Lottery Commission has approved rules for the operation of those gambling devices, expanded gambling in Ohio continues to be far from a sure thing. A number of actions could bring plans for slot machines at the race tracks to a sudden halt.
Three separate lawsuits have been filed against Strickland’s plan to allow race track slots to help beef up the state budget. They contend that the slot machines require the approval of voters in a statewide referendum. It is an issue that mirrors what is taking place in Kentucky.
Kentucky Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, contends that the approval of voters is not necessary to place video slot machines at Kentucky race tracks. Instead, Stumbo insists voters approved the slot machines when they approved the lottery amendment to the Kentucky Constitution more than 20 years ago.
By the same token, Strickland and others in Ohio insist the slot machines at tracks were given the green light when Ohio voters approved the lottery.
We think both Stumbo and Strickland are wrong. In our view, slot machines at race tracks require the approval of voters. That’s why we continue to oppose Stumbo’s efforts to expand gambling without a vote of the people.
But the lawsuits challenging Strickland’s executive order are not the only pending actions casting a shadow over the slot machines at Ohio tracks. On the November ballot in Ohio is an issue that would allow casinos in the state’s largest cities, including Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland. While voters in Ohio have repeatedly rejected ballot issues to allow casinos, the slot machines at the tracks could change the views of Ohio voters.
If voters were to approve casinos at Ohio’s largest cities, it would throw cold water on the enthusiasm for slot machines at the tracks. Given the choice between playing slot machines at race tracks or going to casinos offering gaming tables as well as slots, many gamblers would choose the casinos. That would reduce the amount of revenue produced by the slot machines —and the amount of money those machines generate for state government.
When the deadline passed last week for the initial payments for the $65 million gaming licenses at Ohio tracks, only Raceway Park in Toledo and Northfield Park in northeast Ohio got the payments in on time. The other five tracks face late fees of $100,000 a day, lottery officials said.
Maybe Ohio voters again will reject the casino gambling referendum and the slots will begin operating in May as planned. But don’t bet on it.
Editorials
Uncertain future — 09/20/09
Expanded gambling in Ohio is still far from being a safe bet
- Editorials
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Charles Chattin
Before it merged with Ashland Community College to form Ashland Community and Technical College as a result of the 1997 Higher Education Reform Act, the Ashland Area Vocational-Technical School compiled an impressive record for teaching job skills to young adults and placing more than 85 percent in jobs for which they were trained.
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Try again
It is time for Kentucky Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, to cease playing political games and redraw district lines that are compact and are based far more on population changes during the first decade of this century than on partisan politics.
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'Asset poor'
More than one in four Kentucky households are “asset poor,” meaning that they are living from paycheck to paycheck with little or no financial cushion to fall back on should they suddenly lose their jobs or have another emergency resulting in a temporary loss of or delcine in income.
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Safer mines
The head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says coal operators throughout the country are improving their operations and, as a result, mines are becoming safer. However, MSHA chief Joe Main said too many coal operators still “don’t get it” and are continuing to cut costs by ignoring safety. That’s why MSHA plans to continue targeting mines with a history of repeated violations for additional inspections.
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Not far enough
For the past three sessions of the Kentucky General Assembly, bills that would raise the minimum dropout age from 16 to 18 have been approved by the Kentucky House of Representatives by wide bipartisan margins only to die in the Senate without even a vote.
Now the Senate Education Committee has unanimously approved a dropout bill hailed as an alternative to the House bill, but it does not go nearly far enough. It is a halfway measure that would have only a limited effect on preventing teenagers from quitting high school before graduation and virtually assuring themselves of lives on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.
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Not their job
The local government committee of the Kentucky House of Representatives has wisely killed a bill — dubbed “Cooper’s Law” — that would have allowed the family of the Lexington toddler with cerebral palsy to have a playhouse on their property despite a deed restriction that apparently prohibits such structures.
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Keeping FADE
Despite an increase in cost to the department, Carter County Sheriff Casey Brammell told the Carter County Fiscal Court that his department will continue to be active in the FIVCO Area Development Drug Enforcement (FADE) Task Force — at least for now.
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Needed changes
The soaring enrollment that Kentucky’s community and technical colleges have experienced in recent years could come to a sudden end — or at least be slowed — as about 5,500 students in the statewide system that includes Ashalnd Community and Technical College are expected to lose their financial aid under new rules being implemented by the federal government.
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Released early
While it is disappointing that 75 of the 952 prisoners granted early release in January have violated the terms of their releases, the good news is that none of the former inmates have been charged with new felonies. That’s an early, but positive, indication that the nonviolent felons released before their sentences were up have been carefully selected and are among those least likely to return to a life of crime.
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Obese children
Almost a decade after former Gov. Ernie Fletcher called childhood obesity an “epidemic” in Kentucky, a majority of Kentucky adults still think that there are too many overweight children in the state and they place the bulk of the blame squarely on the shoulders of their parents.
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Charles Chattin
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