Root for Ohio governor vs. casinos

Root for Ohio governor vs. casinos

Whether you like Gov. John Kasich or not, and whether you like casino gambling or not, we’d bet you’re on the governor’s side in the fight he chose to pick last week.

Kasich isn’t happy with the deal that voters statewide gave casino operators when they approved an amendment to the Ohio Constitution in 2009. And no wonder — the developers wrote the amendment.

The amendment allows one casino to be built in each of four cities — Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo. In other words, the developers have a monopoly on casino gambling in the state.

What bothers Kasich, though, is the amount they will pay in state license and license application fees and in taxes on gross revenue. It’s not enough, he says. And no wonder — remember who wrote the amendment?

He is asking the casino developers to pay more, couching it in the language of sacrifice for the common good as state revenue languishes. We expect him to be pretty well boxed in by the language of the amendment, but it’s worth a shot. We wish the governor well.

While we’re wishing, we wish voters hadn’t approved the casino amendment, which we said at the time. But we wish even more that state legislators had given Ohioans — and state government — a better option by writing their own amendment.