MyOhioNow Continuing Fight For Casinos In Ohio

Penn National, a company who has been surrounded by controversy due to their shady business decisions, convinced voters in Ohio that a casino in Clinton County could be disastrous.

They accomplished this feat by citing loopholes in Issue 6 that would have allowed the casino to pay no tax money to the state of Ohio. The would be operators claimed that they would change the wording to ensure the payments to the state, yet voters were still fearful enough to defeat Issue 6.

MyOhioNow, the group that was pushing Issue 6, now claims that they will be back with a new casino proposal for the ballot in November of 2009. They will close all potential loopholes, and come back stronger than this year.

"We remain optimistic. We know there is a large base that supports the idea of a casino in Ohio. With that in mind, MyOhioNow has decided to move forward," said co-founder Brad Pressman, in a release.

Penn National had a contract in place to build and operate a casino in Kansas, but they pulled out of the agreed upon deal after determining there would be too much competition from a neighboring Indian tribe casino.

The company may have had similar worries that there brand was not good enough to compete with a Ohio casino. They bankrolled Vote No on 6, the group opposing the casino in Clinton County.

The group focused on the loophole and the business record of Lakes Entertainment Chief Executive Officer Lyle Berman. MyOhioNow chose to take the high road and not shoot back at Penn National, even though they could have brought up the unethical business actions the company used in Kansas.

Penn National runs a riverboat casino near Cincinnati, so a real casino would have hurt their business. For now, voters have chosen to allow Penn National to keep their monopoly on casino gambling in the state.

November 7, 2008
Posted By Tom Jones
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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