Counting License Plates

Casino proponents love to walk the parking lots of a few neighboring casinos and count license plates from Ohio. There are a few inconsistencies in this argument, such as:

Car counters never tell you how many times the exact same vehicles from Ohio are found in casinos.

Parking lots – completely disregarding the reality that many traveling gamblers are actually gambling addicts.

Certain casinos, like Mountaineer in West Virginia, are located close to population centers in Ohio and Pennsylvania, not their home state. The closest West Virginia town to Mountaineer Casino is Newell, population 1,635. You’d expect people from Pennsylvania and Ohio to dominate the parking lot there. The same is true in nearby Indiana and Michigan casinos.
Even if Ohio legalizes casino gambling – traveling gamblers will still travel. No law can be passed to keep Ohio dollars in Ohio casinos.  Border police cannot stop Ohio cars and busses from traveling to other states.

Casino owners, newspapers, politicians and talk show hosts love to harp on the “money Ohio is losing” by not having casino gambling. Yet none of them is the least bit concerned with retail establishments in other states that are milking millions from Ohio every year. Consider just one retail mall in Grove City, Pennsylvania that is packed with cars with Ohio license plates every day of the year. Ohioans cross the border to buy clothing in Grove City where they save money by not having to pay Ohio state and local sales taxes. No one seriously talks about recovering those lost dollars for Ohio. The same is true with tobacco and alcohol sales in nearby states.