Dean Hoffman

Next Tuesday voters in Ohio will go to the polls to pass judgment not only on the presidential candidates and a host of others seeking office, but also on a “resort casino” to be built right off I-71 between Cincinnati and Columbus.

I’ve already cast my vote. I voted against it, but I’ve had several people in racing tell me in matter-of-fact fashion that the issue will pass. I hope not. It can only be bad news for Ohio racing and for Lebanon Raceway in particular.

Ohioans have voted down casino issues three times in the past and you’d think that the dreamers would walk away after three swings. But a well-financed campaign is being waged through the media to convince voters that the issue is all about creating “jobs, jobs, jobs” in Ohio. Of course, they don’t mention that jobs in horse racing and related industries may be lost. That’s not part of the pro-casino pitch.

Turnout is expected to be huge this year and early voting started weeks ago. The pro-casino media blitz started months ago. There may be many people in Ohio who see nothing wrong with bringing a new business and new jobs into the state at a time of economic hardship.

In fact, my sister is one of them. She and her beau live north of Cincinnati and periodically visit the Argosy riverboats anchored on the Indiana shore of the Ohio River. They don’t gamble much and they don’t gamble often, but they see it merely as a pleasant form of recreation.

I haven’t been able to sway my sister on this issue. (I suspect we’re voting for different presidential candidates, too.). So her vote will cancel mine, but I’ve got three other family members voting against, so we outnumber my sister and her beau.

One person in racing said earlier this year that passage of the casino issue would be a good thing for racing because it would wake up the recalcitrant Ohio legislature and governor and thus prompt them to take some action on slots at racetracks. Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t want to take that gamble.

Another person told me that the best outcome for racing would be for the pro-casino forces to get 49.9 percent of the vote. That narrow defeat, he reasoned, would be the impetus for some legislative action on slots.

Keep in mind that this casino wouldn’t provide a single dime to horse racing or to Ohio agriculture. It fact, it would undermine them. Lebanon Raceway is only about 20 miles away from the proposed site and Scioto Downs and Beulah Park (a Thoroughbred track) are only about 50 miles away.

A friend in New York, who breeds and owns harness horses, was damn near driven to panic when he learned about the issue on the Ohio ballot.

“Every breeder, owners, and raceway owner, Standardbred and flats, should be sending wheelbarrow loads of money to defeat this issue,” he told me. “If other states see casinos without racing, it will quickly doom us.”

One thing that’s critical is that this ballot issue would amend the Ohio constitution and that has been roundly criticized by the state’s newspapers, including a “vote no” recommendation from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the most influential paper in the state.

Still, early polls showed the issue ahead by nine percentage points. Both sides are flooding the airwaves now, but there are so many political messages on TV these days that it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. So they’re using direct mail and other forms of communication. I must concede that the pro-casino TV spots have been extensive and effective.

If the issue should happen to pass, of course, I wonder just where the backers of the casino are going to come up with the $600 million it’s estimated that the resort casino will cost. Haven’t we heard enough on the news about the tsunami to hit the credit markets to know that arranging the financing won’t be a slam-dunk? Unless casino backer Lyle Berman has a real good score in Vegas, I think it’s going to be tough to come up with the dough to make his dream of casino gambling in Ohio come true.

It’s an issue fraught with complexity and I’ve just skimmed the surface. Certainly everyone in the hard-hit Ohio racing industry will be watching the results of this vote next week, and I’m sure it will be watched by others across the nation.