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Backers Withdraw Petitions for fall Slots Vote COLUMBUS, Ohio
(AP) - A challenge to racetrack slot machines has been pulled from November's
ballot, and Gov. Ted Strickland is moving toward getting the budget-saving
gambling devices up and running.
The Legislature had approved a plan from Strickland last summer to allow the
lottery-run slot machines to raise as much as $933 million to balance the
state's current two-year budget.
But the group LetOhioVote argued that the issue should be subject to a
referendum of voters, and the state's high court agreed. In a letter yesterday
to elections chief Jennifer Brunner withdrawing its petitions, LetOhioVote.org
said it had achieved its goal of making sure important questions surrounding
the new form of gambling were answered.
Withdrawal of the referendum follows final action by the racing commission last
week on the sale of two of the tracks to two out-of-state gambling giants.
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