Rob Walgate celebrated last night when he found out that Ohio residents voted no on Issue 6: Casino Gambling.
“As always we’re happy,” said Walgate, the vice president of the American Policy Roundtable. “You know we had confidence in the votes in Ohio for them to see Issue 6 for what it was. It was a scam written to benefit a few and take a lot.”
This marks the fourth time Ohio has voted against the construction of a casino.
“I think it’s imortant to note that there were a lot of promises and Ohioans saw through that,” Walgate said.
Issue 6 proposed a $600 million resort casino to be built near Wilmington, Ohio. The amendment would require the casino to pay a 30 percent tax on revenue.
The tax would go toward expenses for regulating and collecting taxes from the casino and then for the funding of gambling prevention and treatment programs. The remaining money would be split among Ohio counties, 10 percent to Clinton County and the rest divided among the other 87 counties.
Supporters of the bill said the casino would have brought 5,000 new jobs to Ohio while bolstering the Ohio economy through the taxable revenue.
Opponents say the bill’s language has a loophole that would allow the tax to drop to zero should an Indian casino be built in Ohio.
Franklin County would receive an estimated $19.85 million annually from the casino, according to numbers from the MyOhioNow Web site.
The casino would include about 5,000 slot machines, 20 poker rooms and a championship golf course among other amenities.
Casino gambling amendments in Ohio have been proposed and defeated in 1990, 1996 and 2006. Casinos are currently located in 38 U.S. states.
The proponents for issue 6, MyOhioNow, were unavailable for comment.
