COLUMBUS — Ohio lawmakers are again looking to gambling to raise revenue for K-12 education, this time by authorizing the state’s seven racetrack slots parlors to offer video poker.

Among hundreds of changes made this week to the proposed budget for the next two years was a provision allowing “racinos” to program the game on the slot machine-like “video lottery terminals” they already operate.

The move could raise as much as $12.5 million more in profits for K-12 education at a time when lawmakers are trying to close an $800 million gap in the $66.9 billion, two-year budget proposal presented to them by Gov. John Kasich.

Lawmakers added $80 million in basic aid over the biennium to school districts, but roughly half could still see cuts as the money flows through the disbursement formula.

It could also mean up to $2.5 million more for the horse-racing industry.

The state’s four voter-approved casinos in Toledo, Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati already include video poker among their Las Vegas-style offerings.

The profits from the so-called “racinos” in the Columbus, Dayton, Youngstown, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Lebanon areas benefit K-12 education and the horse-racing industry. Each track is allowed up to 2,500 VLTs that are treated as electronic extensions of the Ohio Lottery rather than as true slot machines.

Cincinnati-based Citizens for Community Values predicted the move will again land Ohio in court to defend expansions of gambling not included in the casino constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2009.

It urges House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger (R., Clarksville) to pull the amendment before the House Finance Committee sends the proposed budget to the full House as early as Monday.

The full chamber is expected to send its version of House Bill 49 to the Senate next week. A final bill must reach Mr. Kasich’s desk before the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

“Let’s be clear, by putting this significant expansion of gambling into the budget, some lawmakers are attempting to sneak one by their constituents,” said CCV President Aaron Baer. “The voters defeated the expansion of gambling four times and ultimately only approved it on a limited basis.

“Not only would it be unethical to expand gambling in this way, it is possibly unconstitutional,” he said.

Danielle Frizzi-Babb, spokesman for the lottery commission, said the video poker provision was not requested by the commission.

The budget also includes a provision requiring the lottery commission to reduce the share of revenue paid to the racinos from 66.5 percent in current rules to 65.5 percent.

That’s expected to increase profits for the commission by roughly $9 million a year, but it would mean $125,000 a year less to the racing commission, which gets a piece of the racinos’ net income.

While voters approved the four Las Vegas-style casinos, lawmakers approved the racetrack terminals. They argued that they were extensions of the state lottery that voters had approved in 1973.

A challenge to whether lawmakers had the authority to do so without another vote of the people was thrown out of court on the grounds that those opposed to gambling could not demonstrate they’d been harmed by the move.

Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.

First Published April 29, 2017, 6:52 a.m.