Resignation Not a Surprise

Lottery Director Michael Dolan has resigned from his position within the state of Ohio’s cabinet. This of course does not come as a surprise to many as they felt that there was something less than ethical about the way that he ran things – and with the promise of slot machines coming in something needed to be done.
 
Governor Ted Strickland had announced that slot machines were coming to the state and were going to be placed at the state’s racetracks. With this announcement he said that the slot machines would be run by Dolan and the Ohio State Lottery. This irked many residents as they didn’t want slot machines in the first place, and secondly they certainly didn’t want them run by Dolan.
 
Dolan’s latest snafu came with his sending 100 lottery tickets to a state trooper who had pulled him over and then sent him on his way with a warning. Dolan sent him a thank you note with the tickets and many saw it as a bribe. Dolan says that this was not the case at all, and was simply saying thank you to the trooper.
 
Dolan resigned from the position stating that he felt that with the direction of the lottery going the way of slot machines that he felt it was better if someone else led them there. He said that due to his “personal interests” that he would pass the “baton” to the next person to run the slot machines with the lottery. He will continue to serve until Strickland finds someone else to take the position, but he feels that this is the way it should go. Some say that it was the scrutiny of the moves he had made, and others say that it was more that he was ill prepared to handle a job like legalizing slot machines.