As proponents of a casino in southwestern Ohio announced that they have enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot, a group of religious and political leaders mobilized yesterday to defeat the fourth gambling measure since 1990.

The new anti-gambling campaign touches many of the same themes as the successful 2006 effort to defeat a measure for nine casinos across the state: It argues that gambling would make a handful of entrepreneurs rich while fleecing thousands of Ohioans.

Like the anti-gambling campaign of two years ago, it's also led by the Ohio Roundtable, a conservative public-policy group based in northeastern Ohio.

MyOhioNow.com already has enough signatures on a petition to get its casino on the November ballot, partner Rick A. Lertzman said yesterday. He said the group plans to keep gathering signatures this summer to have a cushion and to educate voters about the campaign.

Roundtable officials Rob Walgate and Melanie Elsey were joined yesterday by Franklin County Commissioner Paula Brooks and the Rev. John Edgar, a Methodist minister, to launch the latest anti-gambling drive.

They said that the campaign to bring a single casino to Clinton County is even worse than the 2006 campaign to put slot machines in seven racetracks and two downtown Cleveland locations.

Edgar said MyOhioNow.com would have a monopoly on gambling in the state and that only 30 percent of its profit would be taxed. The taxed revenue would be split among Ohio counties by population, with a larger share going to Clinton County as the host.

The group says that Franklin County would receive $19.9 million a year.

Edgar said 70 percent of the revenue would go to Lakes Entertainment Inc., the Minnesota casino operator that has partnered with two Cleveland-area investors on the project.

"The thing that stands out is that this is the worst (gambling) proposal by far," Edgar said.

Lertzman responded that the Clinton County casino would keep gambling revenue in Ohio, whereas many Ohioans now drive to Indiana, Michigan, West Virginia and other states to wager.

"We're going to be the highest-taxed company in the state of Ohio," he said. "We think we're creating a plan that's realistic for county governments."

Brooks said the benefits being promised to county governments are largely illusory. She said MyOhioNow.com's numbers aren't guaranteed and would decrease if other casinos, such as Indian casinos, follow in the path of the original.

"Good government and gambling don't mix," she said.

jnash@dispatch.com