Supporters on both sides of the argument for legalizing casino gambling in Ohio and Kentucky traded facts and barbs on Friday morning before an audience of about 50 at a discussion hosted by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber.

Lobbyist and consultant Terry Casey squared off with David Zanotti, president of the conservative-leaning think tank Ohio Roundtable as part of the chamber’s “Mornings with Mel” community updates, hosted by Mel Gravely, president of the Institute for Entrepreneurial Thinking. It took place at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

Casey has been working with the Eastern Shawnee tribe of Oklahoma, which has made land claims in Ohio in a bid to open casinos in the Buckeye State.

The tribe’s proposed location in Monroe, straddling Butler and Warren counties, was approved by over 63 percent of the city’s voters in November.

Nothing can be built there, however, until opposition to the land claims and to legalized gaming are resolved on a state level.

The Monroe proposition “passed despite very strong opposition from evangelical Christians,” Casey said. “We had ministers writing to the local paper saying, ‘If you vote for this, you’re going to Hell.’ I don’t think anyone’s left to go there yet,” Casey quipped. “They have gone to Argosy (Southern Indiana’s biggest riverboat casino), but I don’t think they’ve gone to Hell.”

Zanotti agreed with Casey’s assertion that there is nothing in the Ten Commandments that says “Thou shall not gamble.”

But he warned that the potential costs of gambling could outstrip the initial monetary benefits, which Zanotti said were being inflated by pro-gambling forces.

Zanotti insisted an accurate estimate would have casino gambling contributing less to the Ohio economy than does the current Ohio Lottery, for example.

Zanotti painted a picture of gambling addicts spending money they didn’t have in a desperate bid to hit it big.

Casey countered that a person going to the parking lot of one of Southeast Indiana’s riverboat casinos would find an overwhelming number of Ohio license plates on the types of cars that would indicate “they’re not there spending their welfare check.”

Several times Zanotti referenced a theory that casinos would end up cannibalizing themselves and impoverishing other areas of a city’s life.

“There’s only so much air you can put in a balloon before it bursts,” he said.

“If there’s going to be a lot of spending on the part of new local gamblers in your community, do you think that’s money they have under their mattress now that they don’t know what to do with?”

Casey acknowledged there would likely be a rise in problem gambling with legalization but said experts widely believe that compulsive gambling is a treatable symptom, not a cause.

He compared gambling to a number of habits that have risks but are legal – including driving a car, drinking and “getting married.”