Casinos in Ohio... It's official!

[Hwilli1647545487]

I am torn. As many of you know I play a LOT of cards. A local casino will make it easier for me to find suckers to take their money. However the over all cost for me to play poker will be more.

 

With the local poker clubs I pay a fixed amount to play each night. Depending on the rake structure of the casino, it could be very difficult to earn a good hourly return.

 

In addition, I also agree that it was passed incorrectly.

 

H

[RS69]

Expanded...

 

By forming this bill as an amendment to the constitution instead of a regular law we have now written exclusive rights to casino gambling in Ohio to this one specific company. Constitutional amendments are extraordinarily difficult to repeal or modify and they trump any law set by any municipality all the way to the State level. Constitution > Law. That means in the future if we wanted to open casino gambling to other organizations, say to introduce competition or to negotiate tax rates we can't without an extraordinary legislative process to reverse this amendment which will never happen. This organization now has a monopoly and can effectively dictate casino policy in Ohio to our lawmakers.

 

The way this should have been done was a constitutional amendment to allow casino gambling, then a state law to award the contract to this organization.

 

We just fucked ourselves out of future tax money and benefits by awarding this organization constitutional protection against competition.

 

 

 

Yes, this is exactly what the yes vote did. People need to read and understand what they are were voting for. The casino part was just a cover for the bigger issue.

[SpaceGhost]

We were the smart county.

 

http://www.10tv.com/wwwexportcontent/sites/10tv/onnnews/stories/2009/11/04/Issue_3_Breakout.png

 

http://www.10tv.com/live/content/onnnews/stories/2009/11/04/Issue_3_Folo.html?sid=102

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A day after voters approved Casinos in Ohio, Penn National president Tim Wilmott toured the 27-acre area in Columbus where his casino will sit.

"I love the access to the road systems here in downtown Columbus," Wilmott told ONN's Jim Heath. "We certainly have some buildings to knock down and land to clear up to get this project started, but I saw something that represented a lot of promise."

 

Cuyahoga, Lucas and Hamilton counties approved Issue 3, but it did not pass in Franklin county. In fact, just 4 out of 10 voters in Franklin County supported casinos. Penn National knows some bridges must be built.

"The process begins today," said Penn National Vice President Eric Schippers. "I mean we're here today to say affirmatively we want to work with this community. We want to earn their trust. Earn their support. We recognize there's been a lot of fear."

 

That fear is still real with one lawmaker. At a press conference today, Representative Clyde Evans (R-87th District) proposed another constitutional amendment that, among other things, would change the revenue percentage that the state will receive from casino profits. It would also suspend the locations of the casinos.

 

Evans suggested that many voters did not read the language before they voted.

 

"Of the people I've talked to they didn't," Evans told Heath. "They were shocked when I told them a lot of the things in the bill."

 

The governor and legislative leaders have not said whether they support Evans proposal. It would take a three-fifths majority of the legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the May, 2010 ballot.

 

In the Arena District, union supporters are anxious to start building.

 

"The people who opposed this got beat," said Pasquale Manzi, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Columbus & Central Ohio Building & Construction Trades Council. "It's a statewide issue, not just local. I don't care what this county did on its own. They have to go with everyone else."

 

Some Arena District workers are excited about their new neighbor too.

 

"There's been so much development and so much change in the arena area, and it's brought so much life to the downtown area that this is just the next thing to generate more money," said Zach Martin who works in an Arena District restaurant.

 

Issue 3 was opposed by political and business interests in Columbus, including mayor Michael Coleman, Experience Columbus, and Nationwide Realty, the developers of the Arena District.

 

Wilmott said his outreach efforts to each has already started.

 

"We think that with a lot of information we can share, a lot of questions we can answer, that we're going to convince the people in Columbus that this is a good development to get behind," Wilmott said.

[wagner]

We were the smart county.

 

 

We are also the county tht ws hurting the least out of the 4.