Ohio Tracks installing slots...........

[JustRalph]

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2007/09/15/TICTACTRIAL.ART_ART_09-15-07_A1_EB7TH0M.html?sid=101


http://www.dispatch.com/wwwexportcontent/sites/dispatch/images/sep/tictactrial_0915_09-15-07_A1_PK7TJRO.jpg
SkillMaster machines await installation at Beulah Park, where about 15 "skill-based" games were operating yesterday. Racetrack owners feel certain that a court will side with them and against Ohio's attorney general.

In an audacious gamble, Ohio horse tracks have begun installing hundreds of questionably legal "games of skill" on the assumption that Attorney General Marc Dann will lose his court fight to outlaw the machines.

Track owners, who bankrolled last year's unsuccessful $27 million campaign to bring slot machines to Ohio, are turning to devices that resemble slot machines but exploit a provision in state law allowing skill-based games.

Charles J. Ruma, owner of Beulah Park in Grove City and chairman of last year's slots campaign, said track owners can't afford to sit by as dozens of skill-game parlors eat away at their business.

"I'm going to set up as many as I can so long as it's OK," Ruma said. "As soon as the law says it's not OK, I'm going to pull the plugs."

About 15 machines were operating at Beulah Park yesterday. About 20 more could be turned on this weekend. And at least 100 more were arrayed in rows throughout a storage area, with still more on the way.



~more at the link~

[Kelso]

Charles J. Ruma, owner of Beulah Park in Grove City and chairman of last year's slots campaign, said track owners can't afford to sit by as dozens of skill-game parlors eat away at their business.



:lol: :D :lol:

Attaboy, Chuck!!

[JustRalph]

If I know Ruma........he has a buyer for the machines just in case the courts stop him..............and he will probably mark them up.........

[rrpic6]

Ruma seems to be making the most out of new Attorney General Marc Dann's sloppiness..won't say incompetence yet. Dann was in the right place at the right time, a Democrat candidate seeking State Office at a time when residents were fed up with Republican scandals. Just a few short years ago, Dann was partners in a firm of personal injury attorneys, i.e., ambulance chasers. He'd be more comfortable suing Ruma for having someone slip on his steps, than try to remove these "skill games".

RR

[garyoz]

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070916/BIZ01/709160358/1076/BIZ

From the front business section of the Cincinnati Enquirer. "Ohio Tracks Watch Others Win"

Note the Democratic candidate is ahead by 17 in the polls in Kentucky and is aggresively pushing racinos. That would really hurt Beulah and River Downs.

[JustRalph]

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2007/10/17/gambling.html

Gambling limits win speedy approval from Ohio Senate
House must OK one change before Strickland can sign bill
Wednesday, October 17, 2007 10:57 PM
By Jim Siegel

The Columbus Dispatch
Slot-machine-like games are on the verge of disappearing from Ohio.

The state Senate voted 26-7 today to effectively eliminate tens of thousands of the controversial devices by banning cash payouts and making it more difficult for them to be defined as "skill-based" games.

Legislative leaders rammed the measure through both chambers in a week, with no public testimony and only one token committee hearing, held this morning. About three dozen opponents showed up and occasionally shouted comments at the panel but were told by Senate President Bill M. Harris that they could not testify.

"Our task is to fix a loophole that the courts have told us it's our responsibility to fix," Harris said.

Electronic gambling machines have spread to bars, parlors and racetracks across Ohio as supporters have persuaded courts that they meet the definition of a "skill game" under current state law.

Failing to stop the machines in court, Gov. Ted Strickland and Attorney General Marc Dann asked the legislature to act quickly to ban them.

The bill also passed as an emergency measure, meaning it will take effect the moment Strickland signs it, rather than give opponents 90 days to try to overturn the law through a ballot referendum.

~more at the link~

[highnote]

meanwhile, mountaineer park just started installing poker tables.

that can't be good for competing racetracks.

there are 4 political views RE gambling:

1. conservative but pro-gambling
2. conservative and anti-gambling
3. liberal and pro-gambling
4. liberal but anti-gambling

since people probably won't switch parties based on the issue of gambling, it is going to be difficult for Ohio to pass any pro-gambling legislation -- there is simply too much division between the liberals and conservatives. That plays right into the hands of all the anti-gambling groups.

so big question is how to get the pro-gambling groups to work together?

[furlong21]

Hope Ruma's buyer is ready for immediate possession. This past week the Ohio house passed a billl closing the skill-based amusement machine loop hole and it cleared the Senate with only a minor revision. It will easily clear the House again and the !@#$%ing Buckeye Govenor will not hesitate in signing it.

[JustRalph]

http://www.paceadvantage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43665

[Spectacular Sid]

Ohio Congressman Jimmy Traficant wouldn't put up with that...they got slots in the big house?


http://wackyiraqi.com/news/2002/traficant_zoom_files/mdf10582.jpg