The group has plans for the large first phase of a casino-based,two-million-sf entertainment complex, that will include a roughly200,000-sf casino, a 1,500-room hotel, a 50,000-sf conferencecenter, a 3,000-car parking garage, a 2,500-seat theater, eightrestaurants, a golf course and 10,000-sf of retail. A plannedsecond phase would include an expansion of the hotel, an automotivespeedway, and more retail and casino space, according to thegroup.

Rick Lertzman--who with partner Brad Pressman makes up thebackbone of MyOhioNow--says that his group will get more thanenough signatures to put the issue on the ballot. The group saysthe proposal is different than the last few failed casino issues,because former ballot questions were geared to add more than onecasino. More than 400,000 signatures are required by Aug. 6 to putthe issue on the Nov. 4 ballot, but Lertzman says he isn't worried."We should have double the amount that we need," he says. "We plana very strong campaign this fall." He says many people are outcollecting the petitions, and are apparently being paid for theirefforts, as evidenced by the group's Web site promising to paypetition collectors.

Ohio is surrounded by states that have multiple casinos, and thestate is losing out on millions in tax revenue, Lertzman says."They're all sucking dollars out of Ohio," he tells GlobeSt.com."And after we recently learned we'll lose about 15,000 jobs becauseof DHL and Ford sites closing. We're proposing something that willoffer 5,000 jobs and an economic stimulus for a state that's beenhit really hard."