Columbus Dispatch: Vets, Fraternals Clamor for Bill

Following yesterday’s opening sponsor testimony on HB 325, The Columbus Dispatch reports that the legislation currently before the Ohio House of Representatives would make the preferred method of fundraising for veterans and fraternal groups legal in the state, allowing organizations to keep their doors open.

The legislation, which is currently moving through the Ohio House, still needs to go through proponent and opponent testimony, before being voted on, sent to the Ohio Senate and then to the desk of Ohio Governor John Kasich.

Yesterday’s opening testimony, which included a packed committee room of supporters of HB 325, is the first step in making electronic charitable gaming legal for veterans and fraternal groups across the state, as mentioned in today’s Dispatch article on yesterday’s testimony:

Veterans and fraternal groups are engaged in an ongoing fight over their ability to run electronic gaming machines. They packed a House committee room, and many are eager to return to testify in favor of House Bill 325.

On Oct. 16, Attorney General Mike DeWine ordered members of the Ohio Veterans and Fraternal Charitable Coalition to stop operating what he says are illegal slot machines. In December, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Laurel Beatty granted a temporary restraining order allowing the machines to remain operational.

In November, veterans posts and fraternal lodges rejected an Ohio Lottery Commission offer to place 1,200 electronic gaming machines in their establishments. The six statewide groups argued that the deal would not provide them enough to cover operating costs and charity payments.

The groups prefer to see the legislation pass.

For more information, please continue to check the OVFCC Blog for the latest coverage of Ohio House Bill 325.