Gambling foes plan to appeal dismissal of slot-parlor suit

COLUMBUS — Gambling opponents intend to appeal last month's court decision dismissing their challenge to Ohio's plans to open racetrack slots parlors without first putting the question to voters.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Timothy S. Horton found that the Ohio Roundtable and 19 individuals lacked standing to sue because they "offered little more than bare assertions of harm or injury."

A filing with the court indicates the decision will be appealed to the Columbus-based 10th District Court of Appeals.

So far, just one slots parlor has opened in the state, at Scioto Downs in Columbus.

The march toward racetrack slots began under former Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, but Republican Gov. John Kasich ran with the ball.

The suit contends that the state cannot authorize as many as 17,500 slots-type "video lottery terminals" at seven racetracks as an extension of the Ohio Lottery that voters originally approved in 1973.

The case also challenged a business tax deal that Governor Kasich's office negotiated with the operators of four Las Vegas-style casinos, including the recently opened Hollywood Casino Toledo.

That deal also set the stage for Penn National Gaming Inc. to apply for the relocation of Toledo's Raceway Park to Dayton so that its anticipated slots parlor would not compete with its riverfront casino.