Ohioans voted 53% to 47% to approve Issue 3, which is a constitutional
amendment to allow legal casino gambling in the state.  The group
supporting Issue 3 is Penn Gaming and the owner of the Cleveland Cavilers
NBA team.  The opposition was MTR Gaming which owns casinos in West
Virginia and race tracks in Ohio.  This constitutional amendment to allow
legal gambling has been on the ballot in Ohio five times in the last
nineteen years, and was voted down each time.  However, the difference
this time is that Ohio's economy is in terrible shape and the unemployment
rate is one of the highest in the country.  

Ohio is surrounded by legal casino gambling in Indiana, Michigan,
Pennsylvania and West Virginia.  Studies show that $1,000,000,000.00 Ohio
gaming dollars are spent out of state each year.  Issue 3 backers promised
to build four casinos; Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo, which
would create 34,000 new jobs and generate hundreds of millions of new tax
revenue each year.  They say they could break ground on the casinos by mid
2010 and have them up and running in 2012.

However, the Issue 3 opponents say they are not done fighting and may file
lawsuits to try and stop construction of the casinos.

Irish Mike

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