Two gambling companies that were on opposite sides of last year's unsuccessful campaign to put a casino in southwestern Ohio are poised to join forces on a new measure to build four casinos in the state.

The proposal would include a casino in Columbus, likely in the Arena District. The capital city was not included in the previous four gambling-related statewide ballot measures, all of which failed but drew support in areas where casinos were proposed.

Lakes Entertainment Inc. of Minnesota, which spent nearly $26 million to promote last year's proposal for a casino near Wilmington, and Penn National Gaming Inc. of Pennsylvania, which spent more than $36 million against it, now are working together on a ballot measure for November, sources said.

Also on their team are two deep-pocketed Cleveland investors. Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, who also is the chairman of Quicken Loans, and developer Jeffrey Jacobs, chairman of a Colorado-based gambling company, reportedly are working with the two companies.

The principals declined to comment or spoke in generalities yesterday.

Penn National spokesman Eric Schippers said the company has been open to working with others, including former rivals, on a proposal for casino-style gambling in Ohio.

While spending millions to defeat last year's Wilmington casino, Penn National conducted polls that showed that Ohioans would support a gambling proposal that was written properly, he said.

"When and if a decision is made to ask the voters of Ohio to approve a casino gaming proposal, it will be with the knowledge that we need to demonstrate that the state and its communities will benefit in terms of revenue, economic development and job creation, and that we need to present a proposal that voters will understand and support," Schippers said.

A spokeswoman for Gilbert, Elizabeth Jones, confirmed that he has been involved in preliminary discussions about a ballot measure but declined to go into detail.

"Our interest would be driven by the prospect of the positive impact on economic development and job creation that casino gaming, done the right way, could create both in Cleveland and in the state of Ohio," Jones said.

This year's proposal would include casinos in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo but would leave the state's struggling horse-racing tracks out of the equation, sources said.

An earlier version of Penn National's proposal would have allowed casino-style gambling at the racetracks and would not have included a separate casino site in Toledo, where Penn National owns a horse-racing track.

Since 1990, Ohioans have turned down four ballot measures to expand gambling in the state. The closest such a measure came to passing was in 2006, when 43 percent of voters backed a plan to allow slot machines at racetracks and build two casinos in Cleveland. Two of those racetracks are on the outskirts of Columbus.

The 2008 proposal got 37 percent of the vote.

In the wake of its defeat, Penn National representatives began talking to Ohio lawmakers about sponsoring a measure for November's ballot. Getting the legislature to sponsor a measure would bypass the requirement for more than 400,000 registered voters to sign a petition, a costly and time-consuming proposition.

It's unclear whether the newly expanded pro-gambling coalition still hopes to get legislative sponsorship or is willing to collect signatures. Schippers declined to comment on strategy.

jnash@dispatch.com