Apr. 24--DAYTON -- Investors hoping to bring Indian casinos to Ohio have hired lobbyists, lawyers and architects in a high-stakes bid to convince government officials and the public that more gambling would be good for the state.

But the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, whose interest in Ohio triggered the massive lobbying effort, hasn't spent any of its own money.

Instead, 45 unidentified investors -- most of them from west and central Ohio -- each have contributed between $10,000 and $50,000, said Tom Schnippel, a general contractor from Botkins and president of National Capital I, the Delaware-based company exploring the Shawnees' opportunities in Ohio.

He described the investors as grandmas, firefighters and school teachers.

"They are just average people who go to the casino on a Friday night, or go to the opera," he said.

Some observers question the suggestion that grandmas and such are bankrolling the Shawnees' lobbying efforts.

"I'm suspicious," said Blake Watson, a University of Dayton law professor and former U.S. Justice Department attorney who handled cases involving Indian gaming. Individuals who invest in such efforts tend to be "incredibly wealthy people," he said.

Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, a longtime opponent of the expansion of gambling, said he's troubled by the secrecy.

"The people of Ohio have twice said no to gambling," he said. "They did this in the full light of day in free, open elections for everyone to see. In contrast to this, those who are threatening to bring gambling to Ohio remind me of the casinos themselves. Just as casinos don't have windows to allow people to see what happens inside, we also are left to wonder just who are the real supporters of the casino movement."

Ohioans have no need to question the legitimacy of NCI's funding, said Charles Enyart, chief of the 2,300-member Eastern Shawnees.

"I have never, ever had the feeling that there was anything shady going on, or the money wasn't coming from legitimate sources," he said.

The Eastern Shawnee has negotiated agreements with four Ohio municipalities -- Botkins, Monroe, Lorain and Lordstown -- but still has considerable legislative and legal hurdles to overcome before Miami Valley residents can drive up or down Interstate 75 and be at a casino within an hour.

The tribe will spend its own money once the proposal gets closer to reality, Enyart said.

"Our leadership here is very much committed to this project," he said. "If we weren't serious about it, I wouldn't be making trips to Ohio and making meetings with the legislators."

Terry Casey, an NCI lobbyist and spokesman, said the company is not releasing the names of its investors because of competition with other tribes seeking to open casinos in Ohio.

"We can't tell everything," he said. "There are people who were sworn to stop us from everything."

In a July 2004 ceremony welcoming the Eastern Shawnee to Botkins, NCI Vice President Marty Ellis donned a beaded headband, mounted a horse and hoisted a flag bearing the tribe's insignia before a crowd that included members of the media.

One detail went unmentioned: Ellis isn't an Indian.

Betty Watson is the only member of the Shawnee who is a principal of NCI.

The saga of how the Oklahoma tribe landed in Botkins involves the famous Indian chief Tecumseh and a chance encounter between Watson and a contractor in the tiny Shelby County village.

Three years ago, Watson chose the Dayton area to scout for casino sites because Tecumseh spent most of his childhood in the Miami Valley. Watson says she is a descendent of Tecumseh.

With no luck in Dayton, she and Ellis traveled up I-75 until they spotted a sign advertising Botkins' undeveloped industrial park. When they stopped at Schnippel Construction to ask for directions to the village offices, they met their next president.

Schnippel was so taken by the plan to build a casino there he became a liaison for the group, then took over as president while his wife, Sharon, became NCI's secretary.

Although NCI is a new company with no history in Ohio politics, the group has hired lobbyists and media consultants familiar with the power structure in the state's capital.

They include J. Donald Mottley, a former Republican state representative from West Carrollton; Mary Anne Sharkey, a former press secretary to Gov. Bob Taft; and lobbyists Lisa Dodge and Sean Dunn, whose clients include SBC, Cardinal Health, J.P. Morgan and the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners.

The lobbying effort has so far been most successful attracting the interest of local communities, said UD's Watson.

"Those local communities are, in turn, putting pressure on state officials and federal officials to have the Indians come to Ohio," he said.

Across the country, 28 states have established Indian gambling operations, but no tribe has done it by crossing state lines.

In a memo to tribe members, Enyart said the Eastern Shawnee is getting closer to accomplishing that feat.

"If we are successful, this tribe will be a very wealthy tribe," he says in the memo.

But Indian gaming experts and others watching the tribe's activity here say it's a long shot at best.

"We're so far from that it's not even funny," said Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, who is working with various gaming interests on possible legislation.

Before Indian casinos become a reality, a federally recognized tribe such as the Eastern Shawnee must either have land reserved in a federal trust and strike an agreement with Ohio, or prove it has claims to ancestral lands through the federal court system.

Either scenario poses significant roadblocks. Since 1988, only three tribes have successfully established off-reservation gaming through a federal trust and a state agreement.

The proposal also has some powerful opponents, including Taft and all three Republican candidates for governor: Attorney General Jim Petro, Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell and Auditor Betty Montgomery. Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, the only declared Democrat in the governor's race, said he opposes expanded gambling for central Ohio but is keeping an open mind for areas close to gambling operations in other states.

Taft is not likely to approve a deal with an Indian tribe, which is necessary if the Eastern Shawnee are to avoid a long and difficult court battle.

Seitz said the tribe was "trying to force the governor to deal with them" by encouraging legislators to include projected gambling revenues into the budget plan.

"The legislative leaders did not agree with that approach," Seitz said.

The tribe, meanwhile, has not yet filed a federal land claim, and Enyart said the members would prefer to stay out of court.

"I wouldn't say it's a last resort," he said. "I'd say it's an option."

In 1996, the last time Ohio voters were asked to expand gambling in the state, they rejected the referendum by roughly the same ratio they turned down a gambling proposal in 1990: 2-to-1.

But Detroit voters, too, held conservative views about casinos until one opened across the border in Windsor, Ontario, and began siphoning off about $1 million a day in revenue, said Dan Gustafson, executive director of the Michigan Gaming Control Board.

In 1996, voters in Detroit and across the state approved three casinos in the state's largest city.

"People in Detroit were thinking ... 'If they're going to be gambling and we're going to have all the social ills anyway, why shouldn't we be getting the benefits of it?' " Gustafson said.

Gambling proponents say bleak economic prospects offer the perfect opportunity to bring casinos to Ohio.

"What we're trying to do is turn gaming into an economic engine for the state of Ohio," Schnippel said. "We want to build a better mousetrap than the other existing state facilities so that we can recapture the majority of the $500 million worth of gaming taxes Ohioans are currently spending."

Schnippel said Ohio could support about 25,000 slot machines and, at one job per slot, the casinos would generate millions of dollars in revenue for the state.

NCI's role is to help the tribe secure a gaming license, Schnippel said. If that happens, the principals would be paid a developer's fee.

Professional management companies, he said, would then build and manage the facilities, which would include hotels, restaurants and other amenities.

NCI has contacted several professional management companies about the project, according to Schnippel.

"Most of them say, 'Ohio is the hole in the middle of the doughnut. It's a state that should have gaming, and it's a state that will have gaming. And when you get a little farther down the road, see us again," " he said.

Botkins officials are already sold on the economic benefits, saying the tribe's promise of 1,850 jobs was too good to pass up.

In a March 22 response to a Voinovich letter expressing "grave concerns about bringing gambling to Ohio," Botkins officials noted the village's largest employer, Findlay Industries, closed its doors in 2001, resulting in 200 lost jobs and a 20 percent reduction in village tax revenues. The state recently ranked 49th in job creation, they said, and the village's industrial park has sat empty "due to an economic environment that is hardly conducive to investment and growth."

The multi-page agreements the municipalities approved include language compensating them with a portion of the tribe's net revenues as mitigation against certain negative impacts.

"We've put ourselves in a position to benefit," Lordstown Mayor Michael Chaffee said. "If it doesn't happen, we only invested some time and effort."

One of the world's top poker players says don't bet on Ohio.

Lyle Berman, CEO of Lakes Entertainment Inc., a Minnesota-based publicly traded company whose primary business is managing tribal casinos, said it's difficult, if not impossible, for out-of-state tribes to establish casinos in states where they don't have reservations.

Investors are "probably going to lose all their money," Berman said. "You have a bunch of uneducated people on Indian gaming throwing money away."

Just who those people are remains a mystery.

The municipalities that have approved agreements with the tribe say they are not concerned.

"As long as it's coming from legal means -- and I have no reason to believe that it's coming from illegal means -- it's not an issue that I'm at all concerned with," Chaffee said.

Casey, who has emerged as the face of NCI, said all but two or three of NCI's investors are from Ohio. None are from New York, New Jersey or Nevada, he joked.

"People asking, 'Where's the mysterious money?' are probably confused," Casey said. "People think tens of millions of dollars have been spent (on this effort). There's been money spent, but it's not tens of millions.

"The reality is by carefully organizing we have given that appearance.

"It hasn't been nearly as much as people think."

If nothing else, the money has kept the Eastern Shawnee in the game, a feat in and of itself when you consider the tribe's gaming resume consists of running BorderTown Bingo in Seneca, Mo.

Now, the game will get a little more difficult.

"It seems to me you've got two issues," UD's Watson said. "Is Ohio just going to remain adamantly opposed to casino gambling? If not, who's going to do it? And why should Ohio deal with an Indian tribe from Oklahoma?"

By Jaclyn Giovis and Ben Sutherly

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