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Church Leaders Protest Ohio Racino Rules

A proposal to allow eighteen year olds to gamble at ‘round-the-clock slot machine parlors located at several horseracing tracks in the state of Ohio has a coalition of church leaders up in arms. The Ohio Council of Churches has sworn to battle against the suggested new casinos, which will be open twenty-four hours a day and welcome newly-minted adults to gamble. The Council’s public policy director, Tom Smith, stated yesterday that they will politically combat the proposal as far and long as possible. Smith reaffirmed the Council’s belief that the all-day racinos will be ruinous to the personal finances of the state’s working poor and older teenagers.

The Council is composed of seventeen Christian churches within the Buckeye State, all of which contain at least three million members. The group isn’t the biggest fan of slot machines being legalized at all, but the low age limitation and the all-day availability of the terminals is what really has gotten them riled up and ready for action. Smith said that the Council foresees the most problems with the new gambling rules in heavily-urbanized metro areas like Cleveland and Cincinnati, where some of the most economically-depressed citizens in the state live. He warned that racinos being open all day would only encourage these unfortunate people to spend “long hours” at the gambling halls, trying to fix their monetary problems. He believes a significant increase in gambling debt would logically follow. Furthermore, Smith points out, the eighteen year olds that the state is willing to allow to gamble have neither the funds not the self-control to play the slots prudently and avoid trouble.

The Christian group is not the only opponent of the gambling bill. The Ohio Roundtable business trade group is also vehemently against the proposal and planning to file a lawsuit against the state to stop it from moving forward.

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