Apparently, Ohio lawmakers don’t get it. Ohioans are not in favor of padding the pockets of businesses or politicians with family-destroying addition money. For many gamblers, gambling is pathology. This pathology results in the ruin of personal finances, family welfare, and individuals lives. Yet, Ohio politicians seem blind to anything except money, which is evident in the following Dayton Daily News article.
State Reps. Todd Book, D-McDermott, and Louis Blessing, R-Cincinnati, said on Tuesday, April 7, that they’re drafting legislation based largely on an Ohio Racing Commission plan to put 14,000 slot machines at Ohio’s seven racetracks without a vote of the people.
They’re gathering cosponsors and hope to introduce the bill next week, Book and Blessing said.
Separately, Philip Craig, executive director of the Ohio Licensed Beverage Association, said he is gathering legislative support for a plan to permit slot machines at bars and restaurants, also without the vote of the people.
The effort has support from bar owners such as David Grusenmeyer in the Dayton area, who said business at his three bars is the worst he’s seen in 24 years. He owns two bars in Huber Heights and one in Fairborn.
Work on both proposals comes with the Ohio Ballot Board scheduled to meet on Monday, April 13, to consider a petition from backers of a proposal for casinos in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo. The board must give its OK before supporters can begin to gather the 402,275 signatures needed to put the proposal on the Nov. 3 ballot.
As you can see, the proposed bill is intended to benefit only a few businesses. The reason Ohio needs slot machine gambling at racetracks and in bars is to bailout them out of their financial recession.
Even worse is the repeated use of this golden cash cow to save education from its supposed financial woes justification is getting nauseating.
The state’s weak economy combined with money woes at the tracks make it the right time to discuss expanding the Ohio Lottery to include slot machines at the tracks, said Book. The proposal will call for 51 percent of gross revenue to go to education, said Blessing.
If the economy were so bad that people aren’t spending enough of their unemployment or stimulus checks, how would gambling solve this cash flow problem? Maybe, the best thing for voters handing onto to their dollars is for such business to cease to exist. Taxpayers should refuse to allow politicians to use their tax dollars to prop up poorly managed businesses or those whose products and services are no longer in great demand. The larger they are the louder the sound of good riddance should be heard. Such shouting might even stimulate voters to put those politicians who supported this bill and others like it on unemployment, in my humble opinion.
Source: Dayton Daily News, April 8, 2009