Hollywood should troll Capitol Square for scripts, actors

Joe Hallett

5 April 2009

The Columbus Dispatch




If government acts were crazy film scripts, Capitol Square would be Hollywood.

Maybe Ohio Lottery Director Michael Dolan was inspired by the movie, It Could Happen to You. An honest cop played by Nicolas Cage has no tip money for a waitress played by Bridget Fonda. He shows her a lottery ticket. "If this ticket wins, I'll come back tomorrow and split the proceeds," Cage promises.

Voila! The ticket hits for $4 million and, true to his word, the cop gives the waitress half.

In real life, Dolan likes to hand out free lottery tickets at civic events because "ladies love them," he told an investigator for the Ohio inspector general.

"I usually have them in my car with me, 'cause when I stop and have a cup of coffee or get lunch between Cleveland and Columbus, I'll leave 20 tickets for the waitresses to hand out at the restaurant. I do it every day."

Dolan also gives free tickets to cops, including the state trooper who didn't cite him on Jan. 26 for lacking a front license plate and not wearing a seat belt. The offenses might not have deserved more than a warning, but one wonders whether the trooper felt intimidated when Dolan told him that he was on his way to see the governor, their boss. A day later, Dolan sent the trooper a thank-you note with 100 lottery tickets.

The honest trooper reported the incident to his boss, who told the governor's office, which referred the matter to the inspector general. Dolan shouldn't be handing out free lottery tickets, especially to cops who stop him, the inspector general concluded. Strickland agreed and stopped the giveaways until a policy is created, declining even to slap Dolan's wrist.