The individual that is in charge with implementing the plan to install 17,500 slot machines at Ohio's 7 horse racing tracks is a man that does not like gambling. But Ohio Lottery Head Michael Dolan does know about horses after spending summer on his father's horse farm in Western New York.
Dolan started participating on political campaigns as a teenager, participating in John Glenn campaign for the Senate. He later joined the law of Department of Cleveland and served on the Cleveland City Council for two whole terms before Governor Ted Strickland named him Ohio Lottery Director in March 2007.
Dolan manages a very visible state agency with 333 employees and a total of $2.4 billion in yearly sales. Gov. Strickland charged Dolan with licensing, regulating and managing the brand new multi-billion dollar slot machine market that will be established at the 7 horse racing tracks in the state by May 2010. The administration of Governor Strickland is counting on the slot machines to produce $933 million over the next two years for K-12 funding.
Ohio Lottery Commission member, a member of the Republican Party said that he is content with how the lottery is being managed. He added that he generally supports Director Dolan. But some critics, especially those in the GOP-dominated Senate, question whether Dolan can fulfill the requirements of his job or not.
State Senator John Husted, a Republican from Kettering, said hat Dolan did not know the area where the Lebanon Raceway during a testimony before a Senate Committee in July 2009 so he thinks that he is not adequate for the job. Dolan received a black eye in March 2009 when state Inspector General Tom Charles released a report criticizing Director Dolan for giving free lottery tickets to a state trooper who stopped him on Interstate 71 but did not give him a ticket.
Dolan also lost some credibility with some legislators last year when he asked the Controlling Board for permission to acquire $11 million worth of machines for keno from the GTECH corporation without divulging that the Ohio Lottery was planning to replaced GTECH in favor of Intralot, which would likely make the new keno machines incompatible with the gaming system of Intralot.
Representative Jay Hottinger (Republican-Newark), who is a member of the Controlling Board, said that they expect to have an honest response to their questions and they have not had that with their lottery head. Ohio still has 1,200 keno machines-still sealed in boxes-sitting in a warehouse and Dolan plans on selling those machines.
He said that Intralot agreed during talks for the lottery system to provide its own keno gaming machines at no additional charge. Dolan was in charge of launching keno in mid-2009 with the goal of earning $73 million in profits. But a slow economy, getting bars and bowling alleys to signed-up as keno retailers, training employees to handle games led to only $30 million in earnings.
Dolan said that even they have not achieved their expectations; they still earned $30 million. He added that he would have like to earn $73 million but it is just a projection and he do not think that any economic projection during last year has been right on any issue.
[09-08]
John M. Thorpe
