Reversing their decision of a decade ago, Clark County voters approved
legalized gambling for the county by a wide margin yesterday. It was the
third time the question had been put to a referendum in the county. In 1993
and 1995 it was rejected by margins of about 2,000 votes, out of about
26,000 cast. “I’m not a bit surprised,” said Jeffersonville City Councilman
John Perkins, one of the few elected officials in the county to publicly
support gambling. He said he did so only for the economic benefits of a
casino. Perkins said that in the last referendum gambling opponents “ran
pictures and ads of prostitutes standing under street lights” to show the
problems they thought it would bring to the area. But now, he said, the
county has eight years’ experience with the Caesars casino operating only a
few miles down the Ohio River in Harrison County. Voters can see the
millions of dollars it has brought to that county with few of the problems
opponents predicted, Perkins said. However, approval doesn’t mean Clark will
get a riverboat anytime soon — if ever. One of the existing 11 boats would
have to move from another location or the legislature would have to
authorize a 12th license — not a sure bet in either case. Bob Bailey, a
leader of the church-based opposition to gambling, said foes now have no
further recourse. “The people have spoken,” he said. Bailey, director of
missions for the Southeastern Indiana Baptist Association, said his
organization will turn its attention to developing the social-service
programs he believes would be needed if a casino moves to Clark. That would
include counseling for those addicted to gambling, he said. Although no
license is available for a casino in Clark, Bailey said, he believes one
will be moved there soon, perhaps from Rising Sun, where the Grand Victoria
casino faces intense competition from two others downriver from Cincinnati.

Bailey and other leaders of the Southern Indiana Coalition Against Legalized
Gambling took a low-key approach this year. Instead of the high-profile
opposition that was present during the campaigns in 1993 and 1995, the
opponents this year simply asked the pastors of the county’s more than 100
churches to urge their congregants to vote against the ballot question.

Because he was unable to identify any organized support for the issue,
Bailey said he thought the low-key approach would be more effective than the
high-profile approach of 1993 and 1995. In those campaigns supporters of
gambling spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising, yard signs
and polling.

Perkins, a Democrat, began circulating a petition early this year to put the
question on the Clark ballot. But, he said, he got involved in the major
annexation that the Jeffersonville City Council is working on and didn’t
have enough time to gather all 463 signatures needed.

After Perkins’s effort faltered in the summer, a petition supported by
leaders of the Republican Party got more than enough signatures.

Leaders of the Clark County Democratic Party, including chairman Rod Pate,
have said the Republican-led petition drive was an attempt to stir that
party’s conservative base to come out and vote against the measure — and
for the party’s candidates.

However, Clark County Republican Chairman Glenn Murphy Jr. has denied that.
He said he signed the petition because he thought it would be more likely to
be defeated if it was on the ballot during this year’s countywide election
rather than next year in municipal elections.