Ohio Group Plans Campaign to Combat Gambling Expansion
by Ed Thomas
May 30, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A spokesman for the Cincinnati-based pro-family group Citizens for Community Values (CCV) does not see much success ahead this year for new voting initiatives on gambling in Ohio, even if supporters manage to get any such measures on the November ballot.David Miller, vice president of public policy for CCV, predicts that future votes will have results similar to the last two failed attempts to expand gambling in Ohio. However, he thinks developments in the ten years since the last attempt have only served to prove that the downfalls to society far outweigh the advantages of legalizing more forms of gambling.
"What actually happens when you bring casinos into local communities is that the crime statistics go up within five years after the business opens," Miller says. Meanwhile, he notes, the number of gambling addicts goes up as well, as do drug-related crimes, both of which are a drag on the economy.
Nevertheless, the activist group spokesman says Ohio gambling interests, despite failing at their last attempt a decade ago, are attempting to organize in time to put a gambling initiative on the ballot later this year. Their idea, he says, is "to get limited approval first for slot machines and then later to allow casinos, and those petition efforts are under way right now."
Miller says his group is hoping that the gambling interests "will first of all not succeed in gathering enough signatures." However, if their measure does go on the ballot, he adds, "we hope that it will fail once again.'
In any event, CCV is hedging its bets with a directed voter-education campaign. What the group hopes to do, the public policy spokesman says, is to be "educate the consumers throughout the state of Ohio about the negative impact beyond what the casinos believe the benefits will be."
The plan, Miller explains, is to raise citizens' awareness about the many serious drawbacks of gambling expansion before they go to the polls to weigh in on the issue. Once that is accomplished, CCV's hope is "that the voters will turn it down," he says.
The Ohio organization will be using a vigorous multi-media campaign to oppose both the gambling interests' signature-gathering efforts and any ballot measure, Miller notes. Among other things, he says CCV plans to publicize research from locales across the U.S. showing that a substantial rise in crime takes place after the arrival of casinos.
Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
