Gaming initiatives win BIG on election day
by James J. Hodl
November 1, 2008
It was a banner day for the gaming industry, with referenda to expand casinos and other gambling being approved everywhere except Ohio and Maine, including the first slot machines in Maryland, the first casino in West Virginia and the first lottery in Arkansas
Updated: Nov. 6
Nov. 4 was a banner day for
the gaming industry, with referenda to expand casinos and other gambling being
approved everywhere except Ohio and Maine. In those states,
referendums sought to create a single (and first) resort casino within the
state. But elsewhere saw several firsts, including the first slot machines in Maryland, the first casino in West
Virginia and the first lottery in Arkansas.
State-by-state
results of gambling-related ballot initiatives are as follows:
ARKANSAS
By a nearly 60 percent majority, Arkansas citizens voted for Constitutional Amendment 3 to repeal the state ban on lotteries that has been in effect since 1836. Legislative leaders now predict that lawmakers will enact a state lottery early next year, which Arkansas Lt. Gov. William Halter predicted would annually raise $100 million to fund schools and other pressing needs in the state. The stunning success of this ballot initiative has some predicting that in two years citizens will be asked to approve full-fledged casino gambling beyond the slot machines now operating at some Arkansas dog tracks.
COLORADO
By a 58 percent majority,
voters approved Colorado’s Amendment 50 to
create higher-stakes gambling in the state’s casinos, all located in the towns
of Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple
Creek. Passage of the initiative will allow citizens
in those three towns to separately vote to raise betting limits from $5 to
$100, add craps and roulette, and extends casino operations to 24 hours.
Approval
was heartily welcomed by Colorado’s
community college system, which is primarily funded by gaming revenues, which
will now likely increase.
MAINE
Question 2 has become the
latest gambling proposal to go down to defeat in Maine. Voters in Oxford
County voted 54 percent against
legalizing casino gambling, thus enabling Olympia
Gaming to build a casino in this ski resort area.
Dennis
Bailey, head of the chief opposition group Casinos No, said he hoped this vote
will end forever the desire of some to builds casinos in Maine. But Pat
LaMarche, spokesman for the pro-casino group, said Maine
residents missed the boat, as a casino will likely be built elsewhere in
northern New England, with the resulting jobs
and revenues going with them.
MARYLAND
Marylanders voted
overwhelming for Question 2 to legalize slot machine in the state. Approved by
a 3-to-2 vote, the measure would allow up to 15,000 slots to be installed at
five locations throughout the state, with most going to Baltimore and Anne Arundel
counties.
Proponents
claimed that the slots would generate an additional $600 million in taxes, most
of which going into the Maryland Education Trust Fund, but some targeted to
refurbish the famed Pimlico racetrack.
Opponents
of Question 2 told the Baltimore Sun
they are not finished, and promised to wage campaigns against the proposed
sites for slots gambling.
MASSACHUSETTS
Second time was the charm for
opponents of greyhound racing in Massachusetts.
With the 57-percent approval by voters of Question 3, the
75-year run of racing dogs in the Bay State will end when the sport is banned
in 2010. The owners of the two dog tracks in Massachusetts were aghast at the outcome of
the voting, as they believed the measure would fall short as a similar ballot
initiative did in 2000.
The ban will likely cost the jobs
of about 1,100 employees at the two tracks, though it is legally possible that
the tracks could stay open offering wagering on races videocast from out of
state instead of live races.
Another way to keep the tracks open would be to let them
install slot machines, which Massachusetts House Ways and Means Chairman Robert
DeLeo told the Boston Herald he would propose in 2009 to cover the state’s
expected loss of revenues from dog racing.
MISSOURI
Voters in Missouri approved by a healthy 56 percent
margin Proposition A, even though opponents continue to press a lawsuit to keep
the referendum off the Nov. 4 ballot. As approved, the ballot initiative
repeals Missouri’s unique law limiting gambling losses to $500 per two-hour
period, caps the licensing of casinos to those already open or under
construction, and increases taxes on gambling revenue from 20 to 21 percent to
better fund public education.
Although
Cole County Circuit Court Judge Richard Callahan rejected a lawsuit to strip
from the November ballot, opponents to the measure have appealed that ruling to
Missouri’s Western District Court of Appeals in Kansas City, where oral
arguments are scheduled to begin Nov. 20.
The
appellate court’s ruling will likely not be the final word, as either losing
side expects to appeal that decision to the Missouri Supreme Court, thus
stretching the legal battle well into 2009.
OHIO
Ohio
voters resoundingly rejected Issue 6 to build $600 million casino near the town
of Wilmington
in the southwestern corner of the state.
The gambling
initiative generated a 62 percent “no” vote despite promises that the casino,
to be built by Minnesota-based Lakes Entertainment, would create 5,000 new jobs
in Ohio, which currently has the nation’s second highest unemployment rate, and
generate $210 million in tax revenues all 88 Ohio counties would share. Issue 6
was the fourth referendum to bring casino gambling to Ohio defeated since 1990.
As of
November 6, backers of Issue 6 said they were gearing up for another try at
bringing casino gambling to the Buckeye
State. A new proposal is
being drafted to not only answer criticisms of Issue 6 opponents, but to
including building casino resorts in other parts of the state, including near
the cities of Cleveland, Youngstown
and Cincinnati.
As soon as this proposal is written, the pro-casino group MyOhioNow will begin
collecting signatures to get it on the November 2009 ballot, the group’s
co-founder Rick Lertzman told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
WEST VIRGINIA
By a mere 366-vote margin,
residents of West Virginia’s Greenbrier County
voted to approve a casino for the historic Greenbrier Resort.
Although
most local churches vocally opposed the referendum on moral grounds, most
citizens saw it as an economic development issue, thus making it the first
pro-gambling initiative to be approved in the county (by 6,683 for to 6,317
against), the Charleston Gazette reported.
Spurring
voter approval were reports that the four-star resort had operated $40 million
in the red during the previous four years.
Without
an additional source of income would have to close, costing more than 1,100
local residents their jobs, owner CTX Corp. said of the resort that has been in
operation since before the Civil War.
James J. Hodl
is a Chicago-based freelance writer covering the gaming industry. He can be contacted at +1 773 777 5710; or by e-mail at j.hodl@worldnet.att.net.
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