His latest gambit is to hire a third - a third! - consultant to lay out the path to privatizing the Ohio Lottery Commission. The latest move by Private Kasich's team is a search for a gambling consultant to assure a smooth transition from public to private. Or as Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols explained it to the Plain Dealer a few days ago, to provide "top-to-bottom strategic review of the agency to ultimately determine whether privatizing should be considered and how to maximize the asset to the fullest."
Maximize the asset to the fullest? I wonder if that's how they talk among friends after hours when they want everyone to understand them.
The PD tells us that Team Kasich is already paying a Los Angeles Investment firm, Moelis & Co., on gambling taxes and fees. Then, too, it is paying another out-of-state firm,
Spectrum Gaming Group of Linwood, N.J., to "advise the governor on such things as whether Ohio should allow additional gambling beyond the lottery and the four casinos approved by the voters in 2009."
Consultants don't come cheap these days and it's possible that more money will be flowing out of Ohio for these companies than will come in as additional profits if the lottery is finally privatized. One thing is sure: From everything we've seen with Kasich's modus operandi so far for deep-pocketed political contributors and job-enriched cronies, them that have can expect to have...more.
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