Building Ohio casinos has been a hot topic of late in the state, which is experiencing record numbers of unemployment and foreclosures due to the recession currently taking place in the United States. A strong financial motivation to establish a casino industry in Ohio is that its residents spend millions of dollars at gambling venues in the surrounding states of Michigan, West Virginia, Indiana, and Pennsylvania.

While there is growing support for building casinos in Ohio, the issue has been a contentious one that state residents have voted on over the years, most recently in November 2009. After decades of rejecting the building of Ohio casinos, voters finally gave the okay to build casinos in 2009. While 53% of Ohio residents statewide voted in favor of the casino measure, only 29 out of 88 counties in Ohio actually supported the proposal to build casinos in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, and Toledo. This warrants a discussion of the commonly mentioned pros and cons of establishing a casino industry in Ohio.

A top reason given by proponents of building casinos in Ohio is that a gambling venue presence will lead to the creation of more jobs in the state. In early 2009, a study conducted by the Ohio Job and Growth Committee in fact indicated that building casinos in Ohio would lead to the adding of about twenty thousand jobs, $600 billion in revenues added by taxes that could plug holes in the states budget, and private investment totaling $1 billion. This does offer a strong financially-based argument in favor of establishing a casino industry in Ohio, a state with high unemployment figures and above average levels of foreclosures.

Those who support building casinos in Ohio also site the positive impact that the gambling venues can have on the businesses that would surround them. As an example, casino customers looking for a good meal and some entertainment in between gambling could patronize local restaurants, sporting venues, and theaters in the area. Some of them may even make their trips to the casinos into mini vacations on occasion. In addition, new shops such as souvenir stores like those in Atlantic City, NJ can start up as a result of the casinos presence.

A casino presence in Ohio has its share of critics in addition to its supporters. Those against building casinos in Ohio have their doubts about turning around the states economy and adding thousands of positions to it as a result of a casino industry. To provide examples to support their case, they commonly point to cities like Detroit, Michigan where gambling is currently signed into law.

Detroit is a city plagued by high crime, many foreclosures, and double digit unemployment levels, and not much has changed after gambling was legalized in Michigan. While the casinos have added tax revenues to Detroit's bottom line and created a couple of thousand of jobs, the city overall is in essentially the same state it was before the gambling venues made their presence. Most of the gamblers patronizing the casinos are local residents as opposed to tourists spending their money in the state, and some local businesses have expressed concerns that the casinos are detracting business from them. Such businesses include restaurants.

In addition to providing examples of how constructing casinos does not necessarily translate into a financial transformation for a region in economic trouble, those opposing building casinos in Ohio also point to the problem of gambling addiction and how it can adversely impact lower-income residents in an area. In some areas where gambling is currently legal, there has been discussion about how a casino's presence can negatively affect lower-income residents who gamble away the little money they have in the hopes of getting lucky and achieving financial success overnight. This can further depress an area already in distress, which is exactly what legislators should want to avoid.

Voters paved the way to build casinos in Ohio in November 2009 after years of voting the measure down. People who are for and against building the Ohio casinos are both vocal in the state. Proponents feel that the casinos will positively impact job growth and the bottom line of Ohio. Critics point to examples of cities where gambling is legal and where the overall economic and social states of the areas did not change much due to the presence of casino industries in them. Time will tell how the building of casinos in Ohio progresses.

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