On July 9th, 2008, around 6 businesses in the counties of Clark and Champaign have already applied for keno license, the brand new game from the Ohio Lottery that will be featured in bars, restaurants, racing tracks or bowling alleys beginning on August 4th, 2008. Ohio Lottery Sales Director Dan Metelsky commented that keno is like the bingo game for lottery enthusiasts. The games are under the proposal supported by Governor Ted Strickland to solve the $733 million budget deficit.
Gov. Ted Strickland's press secretary, Keith Dailey commented that the state is expecting a $73 million earnings from the game. It will be allocated for local schools. In keno games, players choose one to ten digits from around eighty digits. The machine will then randomly choose twenty numbers. If you were able to match all of the ten numbers, you will win around $100,000, if players will only be able to match a single number, players will only win $2.
More than one thousand Ohio bars, taverns, bowling alleys, racing tracks, amphitheaters and restaurants have filed for keno permits. Around nine hundred fifty of those businesses have met the criteria set by the Ohio Lottery. One of those conditions is that the establishment should sell alcohol, have the area for the game and passed a background check. Village Inn Tavern owner Darla Randall said that she hopes that it will bring back the customers that she have lost due to the smoking ban.
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Louis Blechdom
