Despite the competitive threat from full-service casinos, some members of Ohio's racing industry sounded positive notes on the morning after the votes were counted.

Bill McLaughlin, general manager of Raceway Park, owned and operated by Penn National Gaming, was upbeat on Wednesday morning.

"It's business as usual here; we're forward looking to a big Breeders' Cup simulcast on Saturday," McLaughlin said.

"I think (the passage of Issue 3) puts the racing industry in a stronger position. The state is now open to gambling and this opens doors for us. And, the casinos will bring revenue to racing.

"If Issue 3 hadn't passed, the Ohio industry would have nothing going for it."

The constitutional amendment passed Tuesday requires the four casinos to pay a small portion of the 33 percent they will pay as taxes on gaming revenues to the racetracks. That would mean a split of a projected $18 million among the commercial tracks and their purse pools.

When asked if Penn National, which will operate two of the four casinos, would support VLTs at Ohio's tracks if a petition drive to put the VLT question on the Nov. 2010 ballot is successful, McLaughlin said, "I can't speak for Penn National, of course, but I know they have always supported racing and Raceway Park -- to the fullest extent."

Stacy Cahill, general manager at Scioto Downs, owned and operated by MTR Gaming, which actively opposed Issue 3, echoed, almost word-for-word, McLaughlin's positive statements.

"It's business as usual here. We plan to open in May and go from there," Cahill said. "We're hoping that now that Ohioans have said they want gaming that it will be a positive thing, and that we'll be able to move forward."

Jerry Knappenberger, general manager of the Ohio Harness Horsemen's Association, observed that Tuesday's vote did one thing: It blew a big hole in Ohio's biennial budget, closed in part this summer when Gov. Ted Strickland put VLT revenue in -- before it was then thrown out by the Ohio Supreme Court.

Because that budget shortfall exists, and because meaningfull casino revenues won't flow until 2012 at the earliest, Knappenberger says a window of opportunity remains for the introduction of track-based VLTs.

"The state is still facing a billion-dollar hole in (this year's) budget and the next, and we've heard that the governor is still committed to putting slots at the tracks," Knappenberger said.

"(Tuesday's vote) does not necessarily kill VLTs, but there are too many moving parts at this time to know what's going to happen."

The moving parts have to do with how lawmakers will react to having to find revenue to close the large, near-term budget gap; the talk in the legislature of asking voters to again modify the constitution to increase casino taxes; and an upcoming decision by the Ohio Supreme Court that will determine whether the governor can simply mandate VLTs at tracks under the authority he already has to direct the operations of the Ohio Lottery.

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THE PROMISE OF JOBS WINS THE DAY FOR OHIO'S ISSUE THREE

In the end, it was the poor economy and the promise of 34,000 casino-related jobs -- 15,000 projected as permanent -- that led to the passage of Ohio's Issue 3 on Tuesday.

Whether the promise will ever materialize, and without estimating the potential thousands of jobs that may be lost in the racing and breeding industries in the state, the issue that created four casinos passed by a 53 to 47 percent margin.

The pro-casino group, headed by Dan Gilbert, president of an online mortgage firm and majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team, and Penn National Gaming, which operates Toledo's Raceway Park, spent a reported $34 million on the campaign -- compared to an estimated $6 million spent by opponents. Gilbert will build and run casinos in Cincinnati and Cleveland and Penn National will build and operate in Toledo and Columbus.

County: For; Against.

Lucas: 60,895 (53%); 53,193 (47%).

Franklin: 107,016 (42%; 149,406 (58%).

Hamilton:158,612 (67%); 79,225 (33%).

Warren: 33,099 (56%), 25,763 (44%).

Summit: 76,547 (55%); 63,499 (45%).

Cuyahoga: 241,877 (65%); 127,665 (35%).

State-wide: 1,663,149 (53%); 1,476,592 (47%).

To show how strong the issue was with voters, even in areas that seemingly have much to lose if a racetrack closes, it passed in five of the six counties that are home to the state's seven commercial racetracks. Only Franklin County, home to Scioto Downs and Beulah Park, defeated the issue among those six counties.

It's not clear what the near-term effect will be on Ohio's racing industry. The constitutional amendment passed on Tuesday mandates that the state must create a Casino Control Commission and put regulations in place within six months. The casinos will likely be in operation in 2012.

Lou Blessing (R-Cincinnati), who co-chaired TruthPac.org, which opposed the measure, said last night that he will consider working to put further regulatory language before the voters next year that would increase the licensing fees and other casino regulations.

In addition, the group which successfully opposed Gov. Ted Strickland's approval of video lottery terminals at the Ohio tracks in the Ohio Supreme Court, LetOhioVote.org, has said that it will easily meet the Dec. 18 deadline to gather 421,000 voter signatures. If they do, the question of putting VLTs at the tracks will be put before voters next November.

Last week, Steve McCoy, president of the Ohio Harness Horsemen's Association, said he believed that "a majority" of the state's seven racetracks could close if Issue 3 were to pass.

Courtesy of John PAWLAK, of the United States Trotting Association