“We don’t see anything in the bill as it stands that would change our plan to seek permission to move Beulah to Dayton,” Penn spokesman Bob Tenenbaum said Tuesday.
State Sen. Eric Kearney, D-Cincinnati, asked for an amendment preventing one racetrack with VLTs from moving within 50 miles of another, but the Senate tabled that item. The proposed Dayton site is only 25 miles from Lebanon Raceway.
Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Springboro, said the bill would allow Lebanon to relocate within 20 miles of its current site without paying a relocation fee. Jones voted against the bill, but said it was not because of its impact on Lebanon, but because she doesn’t support “the explosion of gambling in the community.”
Tenenbaum said once a plan to authorize video lottery terminals at racetracks is in place including details on licensing fees and tax rates, Penn intends to ask the State Racing Commission for permission to relocate.
Keith Nixon of Miami Valley Trotting, a co-operator of the Lebanon Raceway, said Tuesday’s vote in the Ohio Senate “preserves what we’ve been intending to do along I-75.”
Nixon said a provision was approved allow moving Lebanon Raceway within 20 miles of its current location at the Warren County Fairgrounds in Lebanon.
“That covers territories from Dayton south on I-75 to Monroe that we’ve been looking at,” he said.
However, a proposal that would enable Beulah Park to move from Columbus to Dayton, still concerns Nixon.
“We’ll oppose that move,” Nixon said. “We don’t think there’s enough in Dayton for us and them.”
John Carlo of Lebanon Trotting, the other co-operator of the Lebanon Raceway, was reached in Hampton, Va. where he was with his daughter at an AAU basketball tournament. Carlo declined to comment because he had not read what was being considered by the state Senate.
Senate President Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond, said the state may have more work to do on the VLT details in the fall, but Tuesday’s action cleared the way for racetrack moves to begin.
Dayton City Manager Tim Riordan said he’s still worried that someone opposed to gambling might sue, but he said passage of the bill without the 50-mile restriction is important.
“In terms of small steps that could have stopped (the project), these are significant steps,” he said.
The Senate voted 27-6 in favor of amended House Bill 277, and the House approved those amendments, 64-32.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2278 or jkelley@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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