On February 11th, 2008, when Ted Strickland commented that the state of Ohio would earn $73 million annually by offering the casino style game in the state. The Governor's estimation comes from the experience of neighboring states like Michigan and West Virginia, who have offered keno in their own backyard. But it turned out that the figures that the Governor based his estimate comes from the report that was compiled by one of the vendors of the Ohio Lottery, which is based in Rhode Island and could profit a lot from the project.
GTECH Corporation has been aggressively lobbying state officials to offer keno since the year 2002. It has at its disposal one of Ohio's known lobbying organizations, Success Group, which have given contributions to Strickland's campaign fund and was headed by Strickland's former cabinet secretary. The allegations notwithstanding, Strickland's drive to offer keno had nothing to do with GTECH at all but the decision aims to gather funds for education and other vital needs of the residents of Ohio according to Keith Dailey, the spokesperson of Gov. Strickland.
Strickland announced the decision on January 31st, while stating $773 million in spending cutbacks and other cuts regarding the weakening economy. Critics are quick to denounce the plan of Gov. Strickland, saying that it is hypocritical on the part of the Governor. The company said on its report in 2002 said that the lottery in Ohio needs to produce additional profits and adding keno will be a good move.
GTECH also added that Keno is a good game for the gaming market in Ohio with more than five thousand establishments that can host the game. GTECH commented that Keno would produce seventy-three million dollars in total revenue annually. GTECH operates keno systems in about ten of the twelve states that feature keno but there is absolutely no guarantee that the company will win the contract in the state of Ohio.
GTECH is one of the two organizations that manages the technical aspect of the Ohio Lottery. The company was paid $24.5 million in 2007 to handle the lottery tickets and instant ticket vending machines of the company. The officials of the company declined to comment on the issue.
[19-03]
Louis Blechdom
