Ohio Citizens Reject Casino Plan Re-Packaged as Education Measure

Ohio Citizens Reject Casino Plan Re-Packaged as Education Measure

By Ed Thomas

(AgapePress) - A pro-family activist says Ohio gambling interests, despite developing a promotion campaign designed to be more successful than previous initiatives, failed to sell the state's citizens on Issue 3, a new effort to legalize casino gambling. The proposal, which included money allocated for education, was dubbed the "Earn and Learn" initiative.

David Miller of the Ohio-based group Citizens for Community Values (CCV) says pro-gambling interests thought they had designed a better approach for winning support of the gambling proposal this time around. He believes supporters thought they were improving on past strategies to win voter approval by making college scholarships for students bound for Ohio schools part of the gambling measure.

Nevertheless, the so-called "Earn and Learn" ballot initiative was defeated by a 57-to-43 percent margin. Miller says statistical information from studies about the effects of casino gambling on other U.S. communities in the past were too plentiful, and Ohio voters were not fooled.

"There are plenty of casinos around the country, plenty of states that have already done this," the pro-family advocate notes. "We have research that tells us what happens to our communities [when gambling is allowed in]."

Among the typical results of legalized gambling, Miller points out, is increased incidence of gambling addiction, bankruptcies, divorce, and other harmful fallout that results in loss of revenue and hurts local economies.

"And so voters are saying 'no' very consistently when they understand the impact of gambling," the CCV spokesman observes. "I think it says a lot that when the voters understand the facts about gambling and the impact on the individuals -- the people, the citizens of Ohio -- they continue to turn it down," he adds.

Obviously, Miller contends, the state's citizens are smart enough to keep rejecting the same repackaged offer. He says last month's failed "Earn and Learn" ballot measure was the pro-gambling interests' third attempt to legalize and expand casino gambling in Ohio.

Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.

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