Ohio rolled the dice and lost; what’s next in Columbus?

Ohio rolled the dice and lost; what’s next in Columbus?

Perhaps members of the Ohio General Assembly who are now alarmed that casino gambling is coming to Ohio on terms they view as less than favorable should have read the tea leaves better during the summer and concluded that the backers of Issue 3 had finally put together a plan that was likely to get voter approval.

Once they had resigned themselves to the idea that casinos were almost certainly coming to the state, the legislators could have agreed to put their own gambling proposal on the ballot. In doing so, they would have at least guaranteed a better deal than the state is getting. And those who were fundamentally opposed to gambling under any terms might have been pleasantly surprised if voters reacted to the confusion of competing proposals by rejecting both.

Alas, the Legislature did not act, and Ohio is stuck with an imperfect plan — to put it mildly — that favors a small cadre of investors who have grabbed a constitutional monopoly on casino gambling in Ohio.

And now, some legislators are talking about a “fix” that would involve the General Assembly placing yet another constitutional amendment on the May ballot, one that would effectively say, “We get it, a lot of Ohioans want to gamble, but if we’re going to have casino developers in Ohio, let’s open it up to competitive bidding and get the best deal possible for Ohio and all Ohioans.” Or words to that effect.

All about the money

Under Issue 3, its backers — Cleveland businessman Dan Gilbert, Penn National Gaming and other casino investors — will have to spread some of their winnings around. They estimated they’ll be giving $650 million a year to various subdivisions across the state, but that’s a soft number based on 33 percent of gross casino revenue.

If casinos are going to be as successful as the backers claim and produce the tens of thousands of jobs they promised, the state may find that other potential operators would be happy to pay more. On the other hand, if what Gilbert and Penn National put in their amendment is really the best Ohio could get, they’d win a competitive bidding process too, wouldn’t they?

So, if some of Ohio’s legislators think they can get Ohio a better deal, more power to them. But what they’re talking about is a long shot. For one thing, it takes a 60 percent vote in both houses of the General Assembly to put an issue on the ballot. For another, the backers of Issue 3, who have already put $30 million or so on the table to get their amendment passed, can probably tie up 41 percent of the House or the Senate for pennies on the dollar. Anyone who doubts that should think about how easy it was for them to buy the support of the FOP, the IAFF, various other labor and trade groups, even the NAACP in the cities of Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Toledo, where the casinos will be located.

The truth is, the backers of Issue 3 ran a masterful campaign and the General Assembly is now left to make the best of a bad situation, either through drafting the best possible enabling legislation it can within the strictures of the amendment or by taking the issue back to the people.