Issues with Issue 6
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 By Marc KilmerThe Akron Beacon Journal has a good editorial today on some of the issues surrounding Issue 6, which would authorize a casino near Wilmington. As they point out, one of the biggest problems is that it would grant a monopoly for one casino to operate in the state. Personally, I have nothing against gambling but I do have something against monopolies. If the state wants to legalize gambling to spur economic growth and create a new stream of revenue for the state and county governments, fine, but doing it by granting a monopoly to one company is a pretty poor way of doing it. As Jeff Hooke, Tom Firey and David Hansen wrote back in 2006:
If, and when, Ohio expands slots, it should pursue a course of responsible financial management. The state should auction slot licenses through a request-for-proposal process, which would stipulate appropriate conditions such as bidders having operational strength, adequate financing and crime-free histories. In this way, most of the economic gain of slots would go to Ohio taxpayers and not to a handful of gambling interests.
That same logic holds today.
