PERSPECTIVE: Vices of strip clubs, slots viewed differently

By JULIE CARR SMYTH The Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — David Zanotti sees a certain irony in the push to crack down on Ohio's strip clubs.

After all, the opponents of expanded gambling that Zanotti's Ohio Roundtable represents can present just as many studies as strip-club foes can, pointing to the supposed harmful effects of their targeted vice on communities.

Yet state lawmakers seem to hate one and love the other.

"You have far more significant well-studied research that shows the dangers of video lottery terminals around the country," Zanotti said. "They are actually called the crack cocaine of gambling devices. That they would oppose both would be a very logical conclusion."

Take a look, though, at two proposals moving through the Republican-controlled state Legislature at the moment.

One is the crackdown on strip clubs. The bill would pre-empt most local strip club rules across the state and uniformly restrict club hours and dancers' proximity to patrons.

Fueled by arguments that the clubs are bad for neighborhoods — promoting crime, drug dealing, prostitution and economic decline — the proposal has already soared through the Ohio Senate and was only slowed in the House after opponents publicly complained last week.

A second proposal, one in a long line to expand gambling options in the state, would allow Ohio's seven horse tracks to install banks of instant racing terminals on their premises. Opponents lay out similar arguments about the harmful effects of gaming locations, among them more crime and drugs, with a very different response.

"The devil's always in the details," said state Rep. Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican who supported an earlier strip-club crackdown yet backs expanded gambling. "I've never argued that there were deleterious effects to gambling, but the opponents have never done the cost-benefit analysis."

What Seitz means is that Ohio is losing hundreds of millions of dollars each year to casino-like slots operations across its border, particularly in his hometown of Cincinnati, and near the West Virginia border, according to legislative calculations.