Economy Central To Ohio Casino Fight

JULIE CARR SMYTH

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Backers of a casino proposal on the November ballot are counting on Ohio's abysmal economy to shift the winds in one of the nation's most stubborn anti-gambling states.

Everything about the campaign — the state's fifth major gambling referendum in the last two decades — centers on the jobs issue.

Unemployment in Ohio, a once-proud manufacturing mecca, has topped 10 percent. A related decline in income-tax revenue has set off a battle over balancing the state budget that lingers nearly four months into the fiscal year. Casinos could raise nearly $1 billion for the state.

The pro-casino forces — Penn National Gaming Inc. and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert — have even named themselves the Ohio Jobs & Growth Committee.

Omnipresent TV ads herald creation of 34,000 jobs from four casinos to be built in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo. And, in a reversal from past campaigns, a host of unions eager for employment are working the phones.

An Ohio Newspaper poll conducted by the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati found that 59 percent of registered voters support Issue 3 on the Nov. 3 ballot. The four previous gambling issues, all of which failed, had similar strong support in advance of voting.