ELYRIA – Art Schlichter knows a lot about gambling.

That’s why the former Ohio State quarterback whose professional football career was destroyed by his crippling gambling addiction said he is crisscrossing the state telling anyone who will listen that Issue 3 is a bad idea.

The proposed constitutional amendment would allow the construction of casinos in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo. Its backers say it will create 34,000 new jobs and boost the state’s sagging economy.

Among those pushing the casino is Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, whose company would win the right under the issue to build casinos in Cleveland and Cincinnati. Another company, Penn National Gaming Inc., would build casinos in Toledo and Columbus cities. The licensing fees for each casino would be $50 million.

But Schlichter claimed this week during an interview at The Chronicle-Telegram that the issue would do nothing to help those the new casinos would harm.

“This is a horrible problem,” he said. “Seven percent of the people who walk through those doors are going to become problem gamblers.”

Schlichter, 49, rattles off his own tale of woe as a warning of the social costs of what gambling can do to even the most promising individuals.

A Washington Court House native, he was a standout at Miami Trace High School before he joined the Buckeyes. Before he was drafted in the NFL in the first round by the then-Baltimore Colts in 1982, he was the starting quarterback at OSU for four seasons and still holds records at the school, he said.

Throughout his career, Schlichter said he was addicted to gambling, specifically betting on sports and on horses.

“I signed for $1 million and immediately blew it on gambling,” he said of his first season with the Colts.

Eventually, he was tossed from the league and played in the Canadian Football League and later did a stint in Arena Football, but his gambling continued.

Schlichter said he spent time in 44 prisons or jails for a total of about 10 years on a variety of charges, including theft.

Since his latest release in 2006, he said he’s been clean and working to help others deal with gambling addiction.

“The best way to stay clear is to reach out and help others,” he said.

Schlichter is also working as a high school football coach in Indiana, near where he spent time in prison, and doing radio coverage of the Buckeyes.

He said he and his mother, with whom he lives, wanted to fight Issue 3 because it doesn’t offer any way to help gamblers. To do so, they founded Families Against Issue 3 a few weeks ago.

Schlichter and another member of the group, Tim Suereth, have been on the road since the group’s inception, but they haven’t had much contact with other casino opponents.

Schlichter said he foresees that gambling is eventually “inevitable” in Ohio, but he said it needs to be added with the right combination of regulation and the means to research and fight gambling addiction.

He also worries about the social impact of bringing casinos to Ohio, such as the potential for increased crime.

“This is really cut and shaped for a few individuals to make a lot of money without a whole lot of regulation,” he said.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

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