US Senator Uses Bible to Oppose Ohio Gambling

A former governor of Ohio now sitting in the US Senate criticized Governor Strickland for installing slots gambling at race tracks, saying he would have raised taxes.

George Voinovich, a former governor of Ohio who is now a US Senator from that state, denounced current Governor Ted Strickland's plan to install casino gambling at race tracks this week. Voinovich used biblical quotations as a reason to reject the slots plan to balance the budget.

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," quoted Voinovich from the Lord's Prayer as he announced he would join the Ohio Roundtable of Churches in a lawsuit aimed to derail the slot installations.

"Anybody who understand the impact that that's (gambling) had on families, like I do, understand what that does," said Voinovich at a news conference. "Not only does it affect their temporal situation, it also affects their eternal happiness."

Voinovich did not refer to Constitutional requirements for separation of church and state, nor did he address the guarantee in that document of the right to individual self-determination.

Voinovich promised to also defeat a ballot proposal to license four casinos for gambling in Ohio's four largest cities. He said the state should raise taxes rather than use gambling revenue to fund the budget.

Governor Strickland said the Senator did not appreciate the fragile state of the state's economy, nor the damage a tax increase could do to the recovery efforts.