Ohioans likely to defeat casino issue

CLEVELAND -- An exclusive WKYC-TV poll on the eve of the election finds Ohio voters rejecting a casino issue by a 14-point margin.

The poll, conducted for the TV station over the weekend by SurveyUSA, finds 55 percent of likely Ohio voters will be casting a no vote on Issue 6. Forty-one percent said they would, or had, voted for Issue 6. The remaining voters were undecided.

Issue 6 would amend the Ohio Constitution to allow the building of one resort casino in southwest Ohio. It is expected to be a $600 million investment which backers say will create 5,000 permanent jobs and $240 million dollars in tax revenue per year for Ohio's counties.

The only region of the state in which the issue was viewed favorably was around Cincinnati, the general area in which the casino would be sited. Issue 6 was ahead there, 49-47 percent.

Ohioans have defeated statewide gambling related issues three times, most recently in 2006.

The SurveyUSA poll surveyed 660 likely voters and has a margin of error of +/- 3.9 percent.