Buckeye RINO

Believe me, there are highly placed Ohio Republicans who are backing Issue 6, the casino monopoly ballot issue.  They just haven’t made themselves visible.  In 2006, during the Ohio Learn and Earn Issue 3 campaign, the politicians who were doing the wheeling and dealing were front and center.  Ohioans got to see the sausage being made right before our eyes, and it made us sick.  We voted it down.  Issue 3 had more Democrat support, as casinos were planned for Democrat strongholds, and Democrat politicians were instrumental in earmarking the potential tax revenues for education.

Now some corrupt Republicans have put their proposal on the table, but they are trying as best they can to remain invisible.  They don’t want to allow the public to see the sausage while it’s being made.  If they’re invisible, then why do I say that the latest proposal is chiefly a Republican plan?  This casino monopoly is planned for the reddest, most Republican, sector of the state.  Some of the most outspoken Republican backers of gambling come from that part of the state, like state rep Blessing.  Furthermore, look at what’s proposed for the tax proceeds.  As part of Republican principles, we often say that government resources ought to be allocated more heavily at the local level, and less heavily at the state and federal levels.  But the pay-to-play General Assembly is so interested in getting re-elected that they are much more interested in legislation that puts dollars in their campaign war chests than they are about sticking to principles.  The pay-to-play state legislature has not funded the mandates they’ve placed upon counties, and has slashed revenue sharing with local governments in order to cover their own rear ends (i.e. balancing the state’s budget).  The proceeds from this casino monopoly are to be sent to the 88 counties to help cover up the fact that corrupt Republican legislators aren’t sticking to their principles about unfunded state mandates and empowering local governments to serve the people.  Of course, another reason for these corrupt Republicans to hide from public view is that gambling is contrary to conservative principles, whether it be redistribution of wealth (but from poor to rich, in this case), maintaining law and order, shrinking the economy, or the damage gambling causes to families and society.  By the way . . . the potshots I take against some prominent Republican state legislators should help readers understand why some have assigned me the moniker of RINO.

Readers may not trust me to elaborate on the Democrat case against Issue 6, since I’m a Republican, so let me defer to a hard-core Democrat blogger who has taken a whack at me from time to time.  Tim Russo of Blogger Interrupted schools Joseph, another Democrat who blogs at Plunderbund, about why good Democrats should oppose Issue 6.  Please pay attention.  This is important.  Here is part of his intro:

“Issue 6 is another example of the filthy rich attempting to buy a license to print their own money on the backs of the poorest Ohioans.  That’s what a casino is.  It’s not a business model, it’s not an industry, it is free money based on nothing but the desperation of poor people.”

When Joseph points out that the state’s economy sucks, and the casino backers want to invest millions in Clinton County, Tim Russo responds in this way:

“I want to tell these people that if they want to invest $600 million into Ohio, they can figure out a way to do so without being parasites on the poorest Ohioans.  Gambling is a regressive tax on the poor, and those dollars are nothing more than a down payment on making Ohioans even poorer.  Build a wind farm, dig for coal, make a high speed rail line, fund an internet startup.  If it’s really a $600 million investment in Ohio, then make it an investment, not a Dickensian regressive tax.”

When Joseph asks if voters should tell Clinton County residents who are losing their DHL jobs that they shouldn’t have casino jobs, Tim Russo replied:

“Yes, I want to be the one to tell those people, and their representatives in government, to find other options, and advocate for jobs that are not a Dickensian sentence to a parasitic existence relying on taking money from poor people.  These will not be good jobs.  They will not be stable jobs.  They will be low wage, low skill, low benefit, sweat shop scraps from the table of a developer who walks away with a fortune.”

When Joseph says we shouldn’t quibble over having to amend Ohio’s Constitution because it’s such a shoddy document in the first place, Tim Russo concedes the shoddy document part, but not the gambling part:

“The Ohio constitution is, in fact, a farce, which has become nothing more than an ATM for whoever has the most money to manipulate it for their own license to print money for themselves.  That does not mean I need to accept it.”

Speaking of farces, Joseph wrote this:

“Ohio’s voters have proven, year after year, they aren’t ready to approve a broader gambling bill that brings gaming to the whole state. This single-casino option seems like a pretty good compromise.”

And Tim Russo very sagely (are you paying attention?) wrote this:

The reason Ohio’s voters don’t want a broader gambling bill is that Ohio’s voters don’t want our state to become a giant black hole in which poor people are consumed by parasites for eternity, like the seventh circle of Dante’s inferno.  This isn’t Las Vegas, where there was nothing before gambling.  This is Ohio, where desperate people cling to nickels and dimes in their pockets after decades of decay.  A single casino is not a compromise, it is just the first step on the road to a state full of them.

I’ve added the bold type to emphasize what makes Joseph’s assertion so farcical to me.

Joseph said this casino could be used as a test case, and if the experiment doesn’t work, the experiment could be shut down.  I feel the need to interject my own opinion at this point to say that there’s no shutting down a casino once it starts.  The casino would be “grandfathered” in, and would be exempt from future bans on casinos, as we can’t write an ex post facto law that would retroactively ban the casino.  The casino backers would thank us for such a ban, protecting them from further competition, and gold-plating their monopoly status. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad idea to treat this issue as a test case.  We already know what casinos do, anyway.

These are just excerpts, so follow the links if you want the whole enchilada.

I hope you were paying attention.

Jill of Writes Like She Talks had forwarded a link to a WCPN podcast addressing Issue 6.  Melanie Elsey, co-hair of Vote No Casinos, and Dr. Bradley Pressman, co-founder of MyOhioNow, the organization sponsoring Issue 6, joined host Dan Mouthrop on WCPN’s Sound of Ideas on the morning of Tuesday, October 21st.  My first reaction, while listening to the podcast, was “They’re allowing Pressman to dominate the discussion.  Pressman talks in the loudest voice, and talks the most.  Though there are some challenges put to Pressman that he doesn’t aptly respond to, if one wasn’t listening to the content closely, one would conclude that Pressman was permitted to speak with too much authority.”  I, myself, wanted to jump into the debate and start challenging Pressman, because I felt that the host and the other guest weren’t challenging him enough.  So I wrote an e-mail back to Jill, and in the intro I said, “Thanks, Jill.  I’ve been listening to the podcast.  Unfortunately, the pro-gambling advocate dominated the discussion throughout, so I don’t think I’ll link to this on my blog.”  While the arguments against Issue 6 are there (You can listen for yourselves at the links above.), Pressman bullies his way through the debate, and I didn’t think it would be the most persuasive case I could make on my blog against Issue 6.

This morning, however, I ran across this piece of information from Daily Briefing, the online political blog of the Columbus Dispatch.  It seems that MyOhioNow only participates in debates that allow them to have an advantage!!!!  Well, well, well.  How about that?

So, what is it about the debate that wouldn’t allow MyOhioNow to enjoy an advantage?  Was it a scary debate opponent?  Nope.  The opponent would have been a representative of No on 6, a campaign committee that Argosy casinos is a stakeholder in.  I told Jill in an e-mail, “Part of what’s inhibiting the debate against Issue 6 is that Argosy’s voice is one of the loudest voices against it, and Argosy obviously doesn’t make any case against gambling.  Argosy only make cases against the monopoly and the wording of the constitutional amendment.”  There’s a lot that can be said against Issue 6 from the standpoint that the constitution is being amended, that the proposal is for a monopoly, and that the wording of the proposal is reckless, (like the point Crabby Fat Guy makes here, or the point Word of Mouth contributor Kalin Stipe makes here) to be sure, but there’s a fuller scope of challenges one can make against casinos, as I did in my first blog entry about it, and as I did when I challenged gambling, itself, on the basis of economics.  There’ll be no one participating in the debate who would challenge the greed of both MyOhioNow AND Argosy, like the points made here, here, and here.  In summation, the debate opponent will not be a formidable one.  That’s not the reason why MyOhioNow wants to back out.

The objection to the debate was that it was to be hosted by the League of Women Voters of the Greater Dayton Area!  Say WHAT??!!!  The League of Women Voters scares the bejeebers out of MyOhioNow?  The same League of Women Voters that host candidate and issue debates through various local chapters throughout Ohio and the rest of America?  My goodness, as a state rep candidate, I’ve participated in candidate forums hosted by Oberlin’s chapter the League of Women Voters TWICE, once in 2002, and again in 2004.  What’s the big deal?  If you visit the website of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, you can find this statement:

The League of Women Voters of Ohio (LWV-Ohio) announced its opposition to state Issue 6, the proposed constitutional amendment authorizing a privately owned casino in Clinton County.  LWV-Ohio’s stand is based principally on its public policy position on the Ohio Constitution, adopted in 1968 and readopted every two years since then.  This policy states that the Ohio Constitution should be a clearly stated body of fundamental principles, and provide for the flexible operation of government.  LWV-Ohio believes that Issue 6’s designation of a specific 94-acre parcel of land for a casino is too narrow a concept to be in the constitution.

LWV-Ohio also found Issue 6 at odds with another of its long-held public policy positions that states Ohio taxes should be fair and equitable.  LWV-Ohio believes Issue 6 grants a disproportionate share of the casino’s tax revenue to Clinton County.

LWV-Ohio President Linda Lalley said the LWV-Ohio Board carefully weighed the pros and cons of the issue in reaching its decision.  She emphasized, “The Ohio Constitution is the foundation of our state’s governance.  It should be—it must be—a clear set of fundamental principles that guide our state.  It should not be a pile of Post It Notes for special interests.”

I LOVE that last part that says the Ohio Constitution should not be a pile of Post It Notes for special interests.  That’s sheer genius!  I LOVE IT!!!

I guess it’s that sheer genius that MyOhioNow is scared of?  But wait!  They’re just the host of the debate, for crying out loud, they aren’t a participant in a debate!  What’s to be scared of?  John McCain and Sarah Palin had to participate in debates moderated by news anchors that favor Obama.  So what?  I don’t know if any of my debates as a candidate ever took place in a neutral or friendly setting.  When I was running as a Republican candidate, I was in the 56th Ohio House District, which has a Democrat index of 70%.  I spoke and had question and answer sessions in front of labor unions.  Oberlin’s chapter of the League of Women Voters is non-partisan, like any chapter of the organization is.  But, let’s be serious, I was an Oberlin resident in 2004, and I can tell you that registered Democrats outnumbered the registered Republicans by a factor of 25 to 1 in my precinct.  I think it likely that, though the League was non-partisan, more of the members were Democrats than they were Republicans, just as the Oberlin community, itself, has many more Democrats than Republicans.  Following MyOhioNow’s reasoning, I should have reconsidered.  What was I supposed to do?  Have a hissy-fit and refuse to appear?  Nonsense.  Did I want to represent my community in the Capitol or not?  Of course I participated.  While MyOhioNow says they’ve debated their opponents 20 times or so (a number that’s inflated by the times they’ve appeared before editorial boards), this is an opportunity to participate in a debate that has a target audience of Clinton County, the location of the proposed casino, itself.  So, does MyOhioNow want to be part of the Clinton County community or not?  Their actions say, NO, they just want to exploit the community.

MyOhioNow referred to the League of Women Voters as a “firing squad.” That’s absolutely outrageous.  The League does not conduct debates in such a manner.  If I were a Clinton County resident, I’d be offended by MyOhioNow’s lack of neighborliness and demonstrated lack of wanting to be held accountable to the community by way of dodging this debate.  If I were a member of the League of Women Voters, I’d also be offended at the “firing squad” description.  There are so few outlets for political speech that don’t cost money to a campaign.  The League of Women Voters is a godsend for providing opportunities to have voices on the candidates and issues be heard.  I’m very grateful for the opportunities the League afforded me to have my say in a public forum.

If we are witnessing this slippery ducking-and-dodging now, before we’ve even voted, I think it’s predictable how MyOhioNow will behave afterward, if Issue 6 were to be approved.  Let’s not approve it.  Vote NO on Issue 6.

“Why would we change our constitution to allow a monopoly when there are plenty of investors who would open up around Ohio. If you are going to change the law (especially the constitution) for one, then change it for all.

“The worst number of casinos to have in Ohio is ONE. Either keep it at zero or make it fair for more than one.”

—Kalin Stipe

The above quote reflects a portion of Stipe’s view against Issue 6.  I’ve already written six blog entries against Issue 6 before now, so it’s only natural that I would choose a quote from Stipe that references opposition to Issue 6.

If you visit Word of Mouth, you will find that Stipe presents the pros and cons of all the state ballot issues before he weighs in with his own commentary, so if you’re scratching your head because you haven’t researched the issues yet, I recommend reading Stipe’s posts.  Here are the links:

• Issue 1: Moving the deadline up on submitting petitions for ballot issues
• Issue 2: Issuing $400 million in bonds, incurring more state debt, for brownfield revitalization and green space preservation
• Issue 3: Setting forth the rights of property owners in relation to water on or below their land
• Issue 4: This issue was withdrawn from the ballot
• Issue 5: New regulations for payday lenders
• Issue 6: Allowing one solitary casino to begin operation in Southwest Ohio

Kalin Stipe is voting no on 1, no on 2, yes on 3, no on 5, and no on 6.

I am voting yes on 1, no on 2, yes on 3, yes on 5, and no on 6.

Feel free to weigh in with how you’ll vote on the state’s ballot issues.

I am providing links to 2 different sources that speak out against Issue 6.

The first comes from WSPD radio (hat tip to Maggie Thurber, who pointed me in the radio station’s direction).  Brian Wilson hosts Jeff Hooke of the Buckeye Institute.  When I listened to the audio, I had to be patient, as it seemed a bit choppy, but the audio is here.

Hooke isn’t taking a stand against gambling itself.  He’s just pointing out that even if you favor gambling, Issue 6 is a bad way to introduce gambling to Ohio.  Hooke suggests the state introduce gambling by auctioning off licenses.  Personally, I think both the auctioning method, and the casino monopoly proposed by Issue 6 are both counter to America’s spirit of free enterprise.  I’m against gambling altogether, but if I were outvoted, and a majority of Ohioans wanted to legalize casinos, then I’d advocate a more libertarian approach (mentioned in my first anti-Issue 6 post), which would allow anyone to operate a casino business just like anyone can operate a restaurant business.  If it’s made legal, we shouldn’t curb competition.  A person shouldn’t have to be well-connected to a politician in order to set up shop, as that approach only breeds corruption.

Hooke also deflates the assertion that the casino would create new jobs.  At best, the casino would simply shift jobs within the entertainment and hospitality industry.  I’ve posted about opportunity cost, which gives more details.

The second link is to Capital Blog (hat tip to JMZ for pointing me in the blog’s direction), which has three video segments, here, featuring Ohio Roundtable and U.S. Senator George Voinovich.  In the first videosegment, Voinovich delivers a speech explaining his opposition to Issue 6 and to gambling, itself.  The second segment is a question-and-answer session with the press.  The third segment is a speech from David Zanotti, of the Ohio Roundtable, debunking some claims made by casinos.  Obviously, I am much more aligned to the Ohio Roundtable’s views on this subject than I am to the Buckeye Institute’s views.

During 1993 and 1994, I was living in Columbus, working as a night auditor at one of the hotels (Howard Johnson Lodge) on Route 161, Dublin-Granville Road, near the interchange with I-71.  (If you’re wondering, the place doesn’t exist anymore.  It, and the neighboring Elephant Bar property, have since been bulldozed and redeveloped.)

During that time, I noticed that we had a perpetual guest.  Someone from out-of-state was essentially living at our hotel, with only a few vacation days here and there when he would head back to his home state.

What was the deal with that guy?

Of course, the hotel was grateful to have him stay there.  It sure helped the bottom line to have a room occupied every night.

A front desk clerk from the evening shift gave me the scoop one night when I came in for my graveyard shift: The hotel’s perpetual guest was a lobbyist for the casino industry.  He was there to peddle influence with our state legislators.  I frowned and said that I hoped that casinos would stay away from Ohio.  The front desk clerk told me matter-of-factly that there would be casinos in Ohio one day because, in the gambling industry, the “house” always wins, and they weren’t going to pay out all this cash for lobbying just to get shut out.  He predicted that the casino industry is absolutely certain Ohio will cave-in someday, and so the money they are spending on peddling influence is a sure bet.

I’m not taking anything for granted, but it’s been 15 years since I started at that night auditor job, and Ohio voters have laudably held the line against casinos, voting down proposal after proposal.

We’d had many out-of-state lobbyists sweep into town to stay at our hotel, but they’d stay for a week (probably when a critical piece of legislation was before the General Assembly) and then leave.  They didn’t stay month after month after month like the gambling lobbyist.

Think of the costs of hotel rooms for lobbyists.  Think of the expenditures for meals.  Think of the expenditures for transportation.  Much of the salaries of such lobbyists would have been spent in Ohio.  Add in the price tag for entertaining politicians.  Then add the price tag for advertising.

In these past 15 years, the casino industry has pumped millions of dollars INTO our economy, trying to get us to legalize their fraudulent parasitic schemes, while we’ve been a tightwad and denied them the satisfaction of picking our pockets.  That’s a track record Ohio can be proud of.  Let’s keep the streak going.

Don’t like the corrupting influence of lobbyists upon our state government?  Well, I have an idea about how to frustrate the plans of at least a few lobbyists:  Vote NO on Issue 6.

We study and try to understand economics because we do not live in a utopia.  Resources are finite, scarce, not unlimited.  We have to make decisions about where we will invest scarce resources because we cannot have it all.  We use many mechanisms to determine how to allocate resources.  We consider returns-on-investment, cost/benefit analyses, supply and demand curves, marginal revenue curves, lists of priorities, etc.  When we look at individual participants in an economy, we speak in terms of micro-economics, and when we look at aggregations of participants, including entire economies, then we speak in terms of macro-economics.  Sometimes, to understand what is happening on the macro level, we need to take a peek at what’s happening at the micro level.  Those analysts trying to get a handle on the housing crisis are doing just that.

So let me turn my attention to Issue 6, which would allow a casino to operate in Ohio.  On the macro level, I have often asserted that casino gambling siphons dollars out of the economy.  Siphoning dollars out of the economy would be a shrinkage risk to the economy, taking a toll on commerce, wealth, and employment, among other things.

Gambling is an industry that cannot sustain itself.  It is parasitic.  It sucks the economic life blood out of its victims, and must continually find new hosts to feed upon, or it eventually peters out.  Even  (perhaps, especially) proponents of casinos understand this, for, on the one hand, they try to limit competition (just one casino for all of Ohio, according to Issue 6), because they know that casinos on every street corner would be unsustainable, yet on the other hand, casinos can’t stand pat and stay where they are without expanding their scope, because they would fold for lack of new hosts to bleed dry.  In the state of Nevada, revenues from resort casinos that cater to tourists had leveled off.  To further boost gambling revenues, casinos with less frills that catered to Nevada residents spread across the Nevada landscape.  Despite all the gambling revenues across Nevada, quality of life hasn’t been on the rise.  In terms of public education of school children, Nevada is among the bottom 3 states, with Louisiana and Mississippi.  Nevada’s gambling revenue totals for the last 7 straight months have been down, and the trend shows every sign of continuing.  The housing market in Nevada is in crisis.  The foreclosure rate is skyrocketing.  The construction industry in Nevada is in the process of shutting down because of overbuild, just like Florida.  In an attempt to make ends meet in a sour economy, there are Nevada businesses that try to lower labor costs by hiring illegal immigrants.

Revenues at long-established casinos in Detroit and in the state of Indiana have also leveled off.  Demand for casinos isn’t rising, it’s dropping.  Casinos in Detroit haven’t prevented the city from being the most poverty-stricken in the nation, nor have tax revenues from casinos helped improve Detroit’s public schools.  As backers of Issue 6 have noted in their commercials, their proposal for a casino within a short drive from Cincinnati has sparked a turf war with Argosy, who operates in Indiana.  With declining revenues, the last thing Argosy wants is someone competing in their market area, and if expansion into Ohio were permitted, it would be Argosy seeking to expand into Ohio in order to fend off falling revenues.  Backers of Issue 6 are also running ads trying to make Ohio covet the casino industries that have set up shop in neighboring states.  We, Ohioans, shouldn’t covet the casinos of other states, as they really haven’t been helpful to the economies of those states.  Michigan’s economy is worse than Ohio’s.  West Virginia and Pennsylvania have limped along for decades now, and gambling isn’t doing anything to turn that around.  Indiana used to have a growing economy, but it’s become sour.  There’s nothing about a casino that will cure Ohio’s economic ills.

In fact, it’s the opposite.  Casinos will exacerbate Ohio’s economic ills.  Let’s figure out why.

You do not have an unlimited income.  There are limits to what you can do with your money, because you don’t have much.  So, when you spend money on a new sofa, that’s money that can’t be used for something else.  When you go out to dinner, that’s money that can’t be used for something else.  When you money on a day at Cedar Point, that’s money that can’t be used for something else.  When you gamble money at a casino, that money you lost can’t be used for something else.  That’s called opportunity cost.  When you spend money on something, it eliminates the opportunity to do something else with that money.

Our economy has hinged on consumption to keep it vibrant.  There is a multiplier effect that causes the money you spend to ripple through the rest of the economy.  We can thank the supply chain for that ripple effect.

When you buy that sofa, you receive a tangible asset in exchange for your money.  A sofa can be quite useful in your home.  Meanwhile, the money you spent becomes useful to the merchant.  The furniture store uses the cash to pay for expenses, including the salaries of workers.  Those workers now have the wherewithal to do some spending, too.  But the benefit doesn’t stop there.  It continues up the supply chain.  Your purchase reduced the store’s inventory.  The store places an order from a distributor to replenish the inventory.  Dollars go to the distribution center.  The distribution center pays its expenses, including the salary of workers.  Those workers now have the wherewithal to do some spending, too.  But the benefit doesn’t stop there.  The distribution center places an order with the sofa manufacturer to replenish its inventory.  Dollars go to the manufacturer.  The manufacturer pays its expenses, including the salaries of workers.  It doesn’t stop there.  The manufacturer places orders with suppliers for lumber, fabric, nails, screws, etc.  Dollars go to the suppliers.  It doesn’t stop there.  The suppliers place orders for raw materials to make components out of.  That’s the multiplier effect.

When you spend money at a restaurant, the restaurant pays its expenses, including the salaries of workers.  You received a tangible benefit–food.  You ate it.  You get to survive to see another day because you didn’t starve.  The money you spent in the restaurant doesn’t stay there.  The restaurant orders more food from a warehouse.  The warehouse pays its expenses, including salaries for workers, but it doesn’t stop there.  The warehouse places orders with companies that process foods, like cheesemakers, and bakeries. The benefits don’t stop there.  Eventually, the dollars reach all the way back to the farmers.

When you spend money at Cedar Point, you are also probably spending money on gasoline, maybe even a hotel, restaurant, or retail store.  I should know.  I live in Sandusky.  Again, those expenses for gasoline, hotel, restaurant, and retail store send dollars rippling up those respective supply chains, creating multiplier effects on the dollars you spent, expanding the economy.  At Cedar Point, they pay their expenses including salaries of workers, and they reinvest some of their profits during the winter on R&D, and construction to build the newest, fastest, tallest, steepest, longest roller coaster in order to keep ahead of the competition.  Thus engineering and construction firms are at work every year even when the park is closed for the winter.  The perpetual construction means that more dollars are spent for lumber, structural steel, masonry, fiberglass, etc.  The dollars keep rippling through the economy.

Then there are casinos.  You spend your money.  You lose your money.  You get nothing in return.  The casino pays its expenses, including the salaries of workers, and the rest of the money goes to the casino owners.  And that’s as far as your money goes.  No inventory needs to be replenished.  There is no supply chain.  You might have bought gasoline to get to the casino, but you might not have enough money to buy gasoline to get home.  You lost so much money, you feel sick.  You can’t eat.  You want to sleep it off, the casino comps you a room upstairs for the night, for the casino is selfish.  Once you enter, the casino doesn’t want you to spend a dime at other restaurants or hotels.  They want every dime to be spent on their property.  That’s what restaurants and hotels in downtown Detroit found out.  The casinos don’t share the wealth.  There’s been no uptick in the amount of business the restaurants and hotels do in Detroit since the casinos opened.  The casinos are selfish.  Your gambling losses line the pockets of some shady fat-cat casino owners.  What do they do with the wealth?  Greedy as they are, they probably try to shelter it, by off-shoring the money in some Swiss bank account, or in the Cayman Islands.  That money has left the economy for good.  You got nothing in return.  You go home, you still have to pay for the mortgage.  Can’t pay it?  You’ll end up in foreclosure.  You’ve got bills to pay.  Can’t pay them?  You might file for bankruptcy.  Forget the credit cards, you’ll have to cut them up when you file for bankruptcy.  Want to go shopping?  Forget about it.  You lost the money at the casino.  Opportunity cost.  The money you lost at the casino is lost to you forever.  You can’t get it back.  You can’t put that money to better use.  That money is not rippling through the economy.

The economy contracts.  As the economy contracts, there is less exchange of goods and services.  Businesses fold.  Workers lose their jobs.  The cycle embarks on a downward spiral.

Vote NO on Issue 6.  Casinos siphon money out of the economy.  That’s not going to help Ohio.

The Boring Made Dull is a blog that is neither boring nor dull.

Ohioans have voted down casino proposals, but they keep coming back.  We kill casino issue after casino issue, and even though these casino issues are dead, dead, dead, they keep on approaching us.  That’s why TBMD warns us about “The Zombie Amendment” to Ohio’s Constitution, which will appear on our ballots this November as Issue 6.

In true Halloween season fashion, TBMD recaps some of the horrors of Issue 6.

Please vote NO on Issue 6 and keep the zombies away for at least another day.

I think it’s crazy that casting ballots has already begun in Ohio.  I hope voters are informed about all the candidates and issues on the ballot before they vote.

I would urge voters to limit payday lending and casino gambling by voting yes on Issue 5 and no on Issue 6 (more about Issue 6 here).

Are you upset about the shark-infested waters on Wall Street that endangered the middle class?  Are you upset at the rampant greed of the fat cats that prey upon those of us that are less savvy about money?  If so, there are conniving persons just like the ones on Wall Street that are scheming of ways to plunder Ohio residents by way of payday lending and casino gambling.  Voting yes on Issue 5 and no on Issue 6 will hold these predatory forces at bay (for now . . . unfortunately, the casino interests make incessant attempts to gain entry to Ohio).

Ads for these schemers and connivers may mention what the laws allow in neighboring states.  Let me suggest to you that what happens in other states is no concern of ours, except to point out that these predatory industries are detrimental to the economies of those other states.  States that neighbor ours are not faring well economically, and the presence of these predators only make conditions worse.  Ohio should be proactive, not reactive, and make laws that are in the best interests of Ohioans instead of worrying about what may or may not go on in other states.

Both of these predatory industries are suggesting that if you vote the way I suggest, jobs will be negatively impacted.  Let me just say that there is a reason why these vultures want us to lay down and die.  They want to devour us for lunch.  Let’s not be a carcass for them to feed on.  Vote yes on Issue 5 and no on Issue 6.

Last night I saw a television advertisement promoting a “yes” vote on Issue 6.  Barf!

I want to urge all registered voters in Ohio to vote “NO!” on Issue 6.

I really wish the casino gambling industry would leave Ohio alone.  How many times have Ohio voters already voted “No” on these casino schemes?  So many that the casino industry should have gotten the message by now.

The tired old message of the advertisement was that some Ohioans travel out of state to gamble.  Big whoop-de-doo.  I’d venture to say that those making the casino trips are becoming fewer in number as time passes.  For one thing, it seems same-store revenues have leveled off and are currently waning in Indiana, Michigan, and West Virginia.  Even those who stay home and play the lottery are not participating as much.  Keno was supposed to fuel a new infusion of revenue into the lottery, but the word on the street is that Keno’s debut wasn’t all that successful.  Are these neighboring states really raking in a huge windfall from gamblers that are Ohio residents?  It sure doesn’t seem like it, with the way the economies of those states are tanking just like Ohio’s.  In every issue campaign to expand gambling in Ohio so far, the gambling industry has always tried to portray itself as a cure-all for what ails Ohio.  Yet, gambling surely hasn’t cured anything in neighboring states.

Issue 6 backers have their own web page.  The first tab I clicked on was labeled “Myths and Truths,” which only had a message of “Coming Soon,” on it.  Since, as of this writing, they haven’t discussed any myths or truths, let me share just a few.

THE BIGGEST MYTH OF ALL:  YOU WILL WIN THE JACKPOT

Truth: All the grandiose claims of the new jobs and tax revenues that the casino will generate is based upon . . . LOSERS!  The casino industry exists because it’s designed to make you LOSE money.  The casino can’t pay any taxes or any of its payroll unless customers lose.  However, the casino lures customers by pumping up their hopes of WINNING.  Another word for this seeming paradox is FRAUD.  Legalizing casinos is legalizing fraud.  A customer goes to the casino buying into all the hype about winning, but leaves empty-handed.  The customer did not receive what they paid for.  Fraud.

All the other myths, including the one on the website’s front page about the casino generating up to 5,000 new jobs, tie into the biggest myth of all, and tie in to the truth behind the myth, which is that people LOSE.

And what about that claim of up to 5,000 new jobs generated by the legalization of this solitary casino along a stretch of I-71 between Columbus and Cincinnati?  The key words are “up to,” which renders the number, itself, meaningless.  “Up to” means it might get as high as that number, but it might not.  So I can say the casino might create up to 5 jobs.  It might generate 5 jobs.  It might not.  I can say the casino might create up to 50 jobs.  I can say it might create up to 500 jobs.  It might create up to 5,000 jobs.  It might create up to 50,000 jobs.  It might create up to 500,000 jobs.  It might create up to 5,000,000 jobs.  What if I said legalizing this casino might create up to 50,000,000 jobs, but it, in reality, only created 50 jobs?  Did I lie?  No.  Because I used the words “up to,” which doesn’t indicate any minimum, only a maximum.  I never used the words “at least,” which would would have indicated a minimum.  So, don’t pay any attention to the number, as it’s meaningless when preceded by the words “up to.”

Another myth is what each county will receive in taxes on gambling revenues.  The projections mean nothing because they really don’t know how much revenue they would receive.  Also, the assumptions about the tax rates are based on the assumption that this casino would enjoy a monopoly in Ohio, with no competitors.  That’s a really huge assumption.  Can this solitary casino maintain it’s monopoly in Ohio?  Nope.  Native American nations, like the Eastern Shawnee, have already staked claims for where they will build casinos.  The only catch is that Ohio doesn’t allow casinos, so these claims have laid dormant.  Once Ohio allows this first casino, there is no way that the other claims can be denied.  The first casino may fight the efforts to allow competition (here’s their flimsy, wishful-thinking argument) from the Eastern Shawnee and other Native American nations, but once the issue reaches the courtrooms, forget about it.  Existing Federal laws will permit the Native American nations to operate casinos in Ohio once the state opens the door for the first casino.  The tax deal accompanying Issue 6 says that if the first casino doesn’t maintain its monopoly in Ohio, that it would be taxed at the same rate as the competitor that pays the lowest taxes.  The Native American nations are exempt from paying taxes on their casino revenues.  Therefore, once the Native American nations break the casino monopoly, $0 tax dollars will be generated by the casino legalized by Issue 6.

Middle-class Americans fork over their hard-earned dollars to Middle East oil barons, and we run the risk of terrorist threats because of it.  Middle-class Americans fork over their hard-earned dollars to pay the mortgage, and Wall Street mishandles it.  Middle-class Americans fork over their-hard earned dollars to the Federal government, and the Federal government uses it to bail out the same Wall Street bigwigs that mishandled the money we sent them.  Why should middle-class Ohioans fork over their hard-earned dollars to line the pockets of some filthy stinking rich casino owners?  I’m sick and tired of the filthy stinking rich, whether they be in the Middle East, in Washington, on Wall Street, or anywhere else, always conniving new ways of reaching into our pockets.  Stay out of my pocket!  And that includes the casino owners!

For those who are Libertarian who think that Ohio ought to allow casinos, let me assure you that Issue 6 is no Libertarian proposal.  If it were a Libertarian proposal, then we wouldn’t be talking about legalizing a casino monopoly within the state.  If it were a Libertarian proposal, it would simply be a blank check allowing anyone to open a casino in any community in the state without any barriers to competition, much like anyone can open a restaurant or a convenience store in any community in the state.  Issue 6 still makes it illegal for the ordinary person to open a casino.  Only one entity will be permitted to open a casino, and that entity is described thusly:

The MyOhioNow.com project is a joint venture with Lakes Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ: LACO), operators of premier gaming facilities located nationwide.

Looking over the petition language, I am reminded of the handiwork of disgraced former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, who always carried water for the gambling interests.

CERTIFICATION OF ATTORNEY GENERAL

Without passing on the advisability of the approval or rejection of the matter referred, but pursuant to the duties imposed on the Attorney General’s Office under Section 3519.01(A) of the Ohio Revised Code, I hereby certify that the summary is a fair and truthful statement of the proposed initiated constitutional amendment, adding Article XV, § 6a(A)-(G).

Marc Dann
Attorney General
December 20, 2007

Finally, I want to talk a little bit about gambling’s REAL impact on the economy.

If I were to buy a sofa from a store, I would gain something tangible, a sofa.  The store I bought it from would gain something tangible, my cash.  With the cash, the store would meet its financial obligations, like paying rent to the leasing agent, and paying the wages of the sales associates.  Furthermore, the store would seek to replenish its inventory, so it would place an order for a sofa to be shipped from a distribution center.  The distribution center would ship another sofa to the store.  The distribution center would receive more sofas from the manufacturer to maintain the distribution center’s inventory.  The manufacturer would keep on churning out new sofas.  In addition to paying worker wages, the manufacturer also orders components and supplies with which to make the sofas, so orders are placed for wood, fabric, screws, etc.  Buying a sofa has a multiplier ripple effect on the economy.  A lot of economic activity is sustained by purchasing a product.

In contrast, if I took the same amount of money needed to buy a sofa and I lost it all while gambling in the casino, I bring home nothing tangible.  The casino owner has to pay a few employees and a few utility bills in order to keep operating, but that’s it.  Since you went home empty handed, no inventory had to be replenished, so your hard-earned cash never went up any supply chain creating more ripples in the economy.  Your money went into the pocket of a casino owner, who was rich to begin with, and didn’t really need your money, even though the casino owner was greedy for your money.  What does the casino owner do with the money?  Maybe the money gets stashed in an off-shore bank account in the Cayman Islands.  The money was siphoned out of the economy.  It’s no longer in circulation.  The money is gone and you’ve got nothing to show for it.  This is why Indiana’s economy is not being helped by the casinos.  This is why Michigan’s economy is not being helped by the casinos.  I could keep going.  The point is, Ohio’s economy won’t be helped by a casino.  It will only seek to further impoverish Ohio’s population to satisfy its own greed.