Tribal gambling comes to Ohio?

Voter approval of a quartet of casinos last November theoretically opens the door to Class III tribal gambling in Ohio. However, this pitch from the Delaware Tribe is likely to bounce in front of the plate and roll all the way to the backstop. To dispose of the elephant in the room, the Delaware band lives in Oklahoma — a bit of a commute. The basic plan is to build a casino on the cheap ($150 million), then sit back and rake in the money. Were Ohio not currently a casino-less state, that $800 million revenue projection would be good for a laugh, little more.

Either getting the land taken into trust (after having it certified as ancestral territory) or trying to enter the market as a management company looks like a “stretch” of global dimensions. And even if all of that broke in the Delawares’ favor, some of their business partners have shady backgrounds that wouldn’t pass regulatory muster. Nice try, but this project looks dead on arrival.