Ohio vote could hurt Indiana casinos

A question on Tuesday's election ballot could determine whether Indiana loses more than $100 million in tax revenue and Kentucky's horseracing industry falls farther behind in the race for casino profits.

But it won't be Hoosiers or Kentuckians casting the ballots.

The referendum is in Ohio, where voters will decide whether to authorize four new casinos that could generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the state and take a major bite out of the Ohio River gambling market in Kentucky and Indiana.

"I hope it fails," said Lawrenceburg, Ind., Mayor Bill Cunningham, whose city collects more than $20 million in taxes annually from the local Hollywood Casino, one of three Indiana gambling boats that are part of the Cincinnati market. "It's a big concern -- not only to the city of Lawrenceburg, but also to the state of Indiana."

The Ohio casinos could reduce traffic to the three Southeast Indiana riverboats by as much as 38 percent and cut their wagering revenue by as much as $260 million, according to a recent study by the nonpartisan Indiana Legislative Services Agency.

Add to that a smaller hit at Hoosier Park Racing & Casino in Anderson, which could lose customers to a Toledo casino, and Indiana could lose more than $100 million of its roughly $900 million in state and local taxes.

"We have to work out what we're going to do to deal with this out-of-state threat," said Indiana House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, who spent part of the summer studying how to deal with such competition. "But as to how we'll try to protect ourselves, I can't answer that yet."

In Kentucky, the answer is easier, said former Gov. Brereton Jones, chairman of the Kentucky Equine Education Project.

The state's horse tracks must be allowed to install slot machines that will "level the playing field" and save the racing industry, he said -- something the legislature so far has been unwilling to authorize.

"We've got to fight back," Jones said.

Fifth time the charm for Ohio?

This will be the fifth time in two decades that Ohio voters have considered whether to authorize casino-style gambling, but supporters are confident that this time it will pass.