Advertisements Quietly Tie Legal Gambling to Education
If you said free college tuition for Ohio kids, you've probably heard one of the proponents' ads or met one of their omnipresent petitioners. If you said slot machines and legalized casinos in Ohio, you might have read the fine print. The well-funded campaign to pass a constitutional amendment legalizing new forms of gambling in Ohio, and sending some of the billions in proceeds to children for college, features happy school kids, a bright yellow sun and the slogan, "A lot of things will come of this.
"Spokeswoman Linda Siefkas said the campaign isn't hiding its proposal's gambling aspect, only promoting its significance as a way to get more Ohio children into higher education. "When we say would you like the chance at a $1 billion scholarship fund, people cannot wait to sign," said Siefkas, in announcing that signatures are rolling in at 700 an hour to get the Learn and Earn proposal on November's ballot.
About 100,000 have been collected so far, a fifth of the goal. The ballot issue, backed by a coalition of racetrack owners and Cleveland's wealthy Jacobs and Ratner families, proposes placing 24-hour slot operations at seven Ohio horse racing tracks and two downtown Cleveland locations.
It also would give the Cuyahoga County commissioners an option after four years to expand into other types of gambling, including table games.
June 3, 2006
Posted By Terry Goodwin
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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