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When the state launches sports betting on Jan. 1, 2023, a portion of the annual gambling revenue will be earmarked for Ohio's military veterans.
Lawmakers, in approving the sports betting initiative, created the Ohio Sports Gaming Profit Veterans Fund and will be contributing a pool of money coming from the profits of sports betting each year. The fund will be administered by the Ohio Department of Veterans Services.
According to Danny Cross, the vast majority of the money will be split between two veterans nursing homes in Sandusky and Georgetown, which provide services to more than 800 veterans. Cross is the managing editor of PlayOhio.com.
State officials estimate the fund will generate about $350,000 over the first five years of sports-betting licensing.
Lucas Denney, an officer with Veterans Services, said any "dollars like that you can do some work with."
According to recent reports, Ohio is home to about 750,000 veterans -- the sixth-largest veteran population in the U.S.
Susan Krawchyk, executive director of the Mahoning County Veterans Service Commission, initially said she hadn't heard about the proposed outlay for the veterans homes and after looking into the matter, said she is glad to see veterans homes get a portion of the gambling revenue, but an additional Veterans Home is “much needed” in northeast Ohio.
“Our office experiences difficulties with families of aging Veterans when we offer the option of the Veteran being able to reside at the Veterans Home, and their response is ‘That is too far for our family to travel’,” Krawchyk said. “The veterans in Northeast Ohio are geographically under served and must suffer the consequences of inadequate facilities, as over 200,000 veterans call this area home.”
Krawchyk's counterpart in Trumbull County, Herman Breuer, also said veterans in northeast Ohio need to be better served.
"My hopes are that these funds can be dedicated to Ohio totally revamping its Veteran Homes and not merely renovating the existing homes, Ohio is currently ranked in the bottom five in providing senior care to its veterans,” Breuer said. “Northeast Ohio has the largest population of veteran throughout the state, and the fact that there is not an adequate facility is a travesty."
According to Veterans Services figures, about 90 percent of its annual budget is dedicated to the two veterans homes, one of which -- the Sandusky Ohio Veterans Home -- was founded in the 1800s to take care of veterans of the Civil War.
The Sandusky home has 427 beds on its sprawling campus off U.S. Route 250 and has been in continuous operation since 1888.
The Georgetown home in rural Brown County, east of Cincinnati, was built in 2003 and offers 168 beds. Veterans who qualify for VA per diem can live in the facilities for about a third of the cost of private care.
For more information, see www.playohio/news