From the Dayton Daily News, April 11, 2003
By William Hershey and Laura A. Bischoff
Columbus Bureau

COLUMBUS | Gambling opponents would have to vote "yes" to reject putting video lottery terminals at Ohio's seven racetracks if a proposal in the budget the Ohio House approved goes on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Supporters of the VLTs, or slot machines, would have to vote "no."

"I don't think it's a trick," state Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, said Thursday. He sponsored the amendment that made the ballot proposal part of the $48.5 billion, two-year budget the House approved Wednesday night and sent to the Senate.

David Zanotti, an opponent of the proposal, disagreed with Seitz, but said he and others would make sure voters understand the issue if it goes on the ballot.

"They'll see through this, even if the legislature is intentionally trying to confuse them. If it gets on the ballot that way, it will be defeated," said Zanotti, president of the Ohio Roundtable, the Strongsville-based public policy group that helped defeat casino gambling at the polls in 1990 and 1996.

Seitz said that many lawyers believe the Ohio Lottery Commission already has the constitutional authority to engage in lottery games of its choice at places of its choice throughout the state.

The ballot proposal, if successful, would limit the locations for VLTs, Seitz said. It reads: "Shall the state of Ohio be prohibited from operating electronic lottery devices at licensed horse racing tracks."

Seitz's amendment would authorize the lottery commission to put up to 2,500 VLTs at each of the seven tracks. The VLTs would operate around the clock daily, except from 5 to 8 a.m. The VLTs would let the state capture some of the gambling money Ohioans now spend at casinos in neighboring states and Canada, he said.

The House budget also includes a temporary penny-on-the-dollar increase in the state sales tax -5 percent statewide. According to the budget bill, the sales tax increase would cease in the second year of the budget, which starts July 1, 2004, if voters approve the slot machine proposal.

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