Reverend John Edgar, chairman of the Ohio Methodist Anti-Gambling Task force and Tom Smith, public policy director for the Ohio Council of Churches, have come forth to fight the new initiative that would bring slot machine gambling to Ohio.  They claim that the canvassers for the slot machine initiative are blatantly lying about using slot machines to pay for the proposed scholarships for top performing high school seniors. 

Smith claims that he was directly approached by one of the slot machine canvassers and that he asked the man if gambling was involved in funding the scholarships. He claims, in an affidavit, that the man said no, and that it “would eliminate the need for the lottery.” This is false on two counts as the initiative does not eliminate the lottery, and it does involve slot machine gambling. Others that have been approached have similar complaints. They are either blatantly lied to as to what they are signing, or they sign a different petition and then are asked to “verify their signature” on another sheet, which turns out to be the slot machine initiative proposal.  

Linda Siefkas, spokesperson for the Ohio Learn and Earn Committee claims that they told the canvassers to tell people it was about helping kids get through college and that if people ask how that is done - then they are to give them an explanation. She also said that they have no problem removing any name from the petition from anyone who signed not realizing that it was the slot machine proposal.

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