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Cleveland Plain Dealer
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Associate Editor Phillip Morris Column
Nothing is funny about the continued negative
economic impact of Ohio’s failure to approach
gambling as a tool for urban development, for
recreation, and for keeping those who like to
wager at home.
Arguably the biggest mistake is a steadfast refusal to
recognize the obvious economic benefits of
big-time gaming. Exacerbating the
whole matter is a glaring hypocrisy.
The Governor has turned a blind eye to the
explosion of Midwestern casinos and Indian
gaming resorts businesses that now
attract billions of Ohio wagering
dollars annually. Ohio will soon have legal
gambling on every border, except Kentucky.
It’s not enough to fall back on the excuse that
Ohioans twice rejected casinos at the ballot
in the last 15 years, but approved a
state lottery 30 years ago. The gaming
landscape has changed completely over
the past decade. We are approaching the point
where not having casino offerings may soon be
the close equivalent of not having a
convention center to offer tourists or
visiting business travelers.
Fortunately, another well-placed Cincinnati
politician recently began to sound the trumpet on
the casino gambling front.
Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken said he has
been having the following nightmare: “I’m
going to wake up one morning and see
casinos on the Ohio River but they are
on the Kentucky side, looking at our
skyline.”
Cleveland Plain Dealer
January 18, 2004
Brent Larkin Editorial Page Director/Viewpoint Column
FOR A CITY IN TROUBLE,
A GAMBLE IS ALL THAT’S
LEFT
By Brent Larkin
There is a bold and dramatic way to save downtown
and raise more money. It’s a solution driven
by utter desperation, but a solution
nonetheless. The solution is one or
two downtown casinos. Big, glitzy ones –
casinos attached to a convention center built
and paid for by the casinos.
Even if the negatives outweigh the positives, casino
gambling might be a chance worth taking
because downtown is at death’s door
and the region’s future has never
looked bleaker.
What’s more, putting casinos downtown makes a lot
more sense than the racetrack bailout bill
that would put slot machines in the
state’s seven racetracks. Slot
machines there would generate only a handful of
jobs and do nothing to help the area’s
economy.
Given a choice between saving downtowns or saving
racetracks, only a fool would choose the
racetracks.
Today we are literally
surrounded by casinos in neighboring
states and Canada - casinos with
parking lots loaded with Ohio license plates.
Casinos bring with them a
troubling increase in a community’s
social ills. But they also bring tourists,
tax revenues and thousands of decent-paying
jobs. If packaged with all our other
amenities, it would be easy to make
casinos in downtown Cleveland far more
attractive than the ones in Detroit. It’s a
discussion worth having.
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New York Times/AP July
13, 2004
TRIBAL CASINO REVENUES TOP
$16.7 BILLION
WASHINGTON — Tribal casinos pulled in more
than $16.7 billion in 2003 as Indian gambling
continued to grow across the country.
According to the National Indian Gaming
Commission report released Tuesday, a survey
showed an increase of more than $2 billion in
gambling revenues, or 13.7 percent, over the
2002 total.
The eastern region includes Connecticut’s two Indian
casinos – Foxwoods and the Mohegan Sun – which
are among the most profitable gambling
facilities in the world. The 24 casinos
in the seven eastern states brought in
$4.3 billion in gross revenues.
The Mohegan Sun employs about 10,000 people;
Foxwoods, operated by the Mashantucket Pequot
tribe, employs about 13,000. Both are in
eastern Connecticut, not far from Rhode
Island.
Cleveland Plain Dealer,
EDITORIAL
Sunday, July 11, 2004
GAMBLERS ALL AROUND US
Pennsylvania took a major step last week toward
becoming the nation’s latest gambling mecca. In
the process, it laid the groundwork to
create a new revenue stream that stands
to dramatically lower property taxes and
finance a host of public services and work projects.
Pennsylvania lawmakers have long chafed at the
billions of dollars that annually flow to other
states’ casinos (primarily neighboring
Atlantic City’s) and made it a priority
in the current session to provide the
state with attractive gaming options of its own.
Proponents say the measure will transform the
convention and tourism business of both
Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
So what does this development mean for Ohio, a
“donor state” that sends billions of dollars
across its borders each year to the
neighbors’ casinos and slots?
Plenty.
A casino in Erie, Pa., would be a draw to the throngs
of Northeast Ohio gamblers who now journey to
Detroit’s casinos or to Mountaineer.
Lots of Ohioans gamble, and wish they could do it
closer to home even as they take their business
elsewhere. And Pennsylvania’s move makes Ohio’s
hand even weaker.
Lima News/AP Newswire
Thursday, July 15, 2004
TRIBE WANTS TO OPEN MORE
OHIO
CASINOS
By John Nolan
CINCINNATI — A Shawnee Indian tribe is
compiling research on its historic claim to Ohio
lands as part of the requirements for its application
to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau
of Indian Affairs.
The Eastern Shawnee Tribe was native to Ohio
before its forced march to Oklahoma two centuries
ago. The tribe believes that its homeland
includes a region of roughly 1.2 million
acres that starts at the Ohio River and
runs between the Great and Little Miami
rivers through the Cincinnati area and about
100 miles north to Bellefontaine.
Casinos run by at least 200 Indian tribes brought in
more than $16.7 billion in 2003 — up more than
$2 billion from 2002 — at more than 300
operations in 28 states.
Since Ohio law already allows the lottery, affiliated
games and charitable gambling, the tribe might
be able to proceed with Class II
gambling, which includes bingo gambling
machines, pull-tabs and card games
against other players.
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