Last-week state lawmakers passed a sweeping bill regulating the state’s new casinos, along with horse tracks, bingo, the Ohio Lottery, internet parlors  and charitable gaming.  But they threw out a provision that would have given each Ohio county the right to host a professionally run card room for charity poker games and tournaments. The provision would have also cleared up the question of whether or not a card room already operating in Cleveland is legal. The Nautica Charity Poker Room has been in business since 2005. State Senator Shirley Smith of Cleveland says card rooms are important to the state’s charities.

Smith:  “We’re going to have to have conversation sooner rather than later about what we’re going to do about the poker game rooms. So, instead of doing haphazard public policy on the card rooms we would rather sit down until everybody can come to a consensus on the regulations and those types of things.”