Video gambling operators will have to fold -- an editorial

After some doubts about the strength of the state's hand, it looks as if video gambling operators will have to fold

Ted Strickland has joined those trying to stop the game-playing.

After earlier helping to derail a misguided bill designed to sneak gambling terminals into racetracks, Ohio's governor moved this week to rid the state of illegal machines already here.

By issuing an executive order that closes the loophole used to justify these devices, Strickland empowered Attorney General Marc Dann to pursue those who manufacture and offer them. The governor acknowledged that he would prefer that the legislature close the loophole, but for now Dann plans to issue 700 cease-and-desist letters across the state.

The governor and the attorney general emphasized that they're not targeting true skill-based amusements -- for example, Chuck E. Cheese games that offer tickets redeemed for modest prizes. Rather, they're aiming at electronic slot machines and other devices that produce outcomes based on the players' luck or the games' software. Claiming that users' knowledge or talent plays a role amounts to a deceptive consumer practice, Strickland and Dann argue. Dann is threatening to sue those who fail to heed his warning letter and is advising law enforcement officials regarding potential criminal penalties.

Both Strickland and Dann are Democrats, yet this issue goes beyond partisanship and directly to the people's will: Ohio's voters have spoken repeatedly to the issue of gambling, and the message has been the same each time: absolutely, positively, overwhelmingly, "No!"

Strickland has said that, in addition to this week's action, he would support a bill that closes all loopholes that may allow these gambling devices to exist. This would hardly be the first time the Democratic governor and a Republican legislature have worked together. But House Speaker Jon Husted made a valid point when he suggested that "Marc Dann's opinions got us into this position to begin with. . . . The proliferation of these machines didn't occur until Marc Dann became attorney general."

Indeed, in 2006, former Attorney General Jim Petro, Republican, issued an opinion that said gambling devices in bars were prohibited under state law. In May, in a move that emboldened businesses seeking to install gambling devices, Dann issued a looser interpretation of that ruling.

Even before Strickland issued this week's executive order, some House and Senate leaders were working on a bill that would effectively ban the machines from bars, while protecting skill games at childrens' restaurants and amusement parks.

So this latest maneuvering in the Statehouse may really be about who gets credit for doing what's necessary: removing devices that resemble slot machines from each and every Ohio business.

News Added: 24 August, 2007

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