LORAIN - With a new governor in the Statehouse, developer Alan Spitzer is ready to roll the political dice again to see if he can bring riverboat gambling to Lorain.

Next year could be the year, Spitzer said yesterday. He said he wanted to give the new governor a chance to settle into office before he begins testing the political waters for another try.

“I don’t know where [the governor] stands on gambling or if he has taken a position,” Spitzer said. But Spitzer hopes that Gov. Bob Taft will not become the powerful opponent his predecessor, Gov. George V. Voinovich, became in 1996, the year that the casino issue was rejected by 62 percent to 38 percent in voting across the state.

Voinovich, now a U.S. senator, used his power and popularity among voters to lead gambling opponents. Orest Holubec, a Taft spokesman, said, “The governor does not support bringing casino or riverboat gambling to Ohio.” But Holubec said he did not know whether Taft would openly campaign against it.

The 1996 defeat of the riverboat gambling issue was the second since 1990 for Spitzer’s plans to bring casino gambling to Lorain. Afterward, he seemed to change direction, turning his attention to enlarging his chain of car dealerships and developing the 55 acres he owns on the east side of the Black River, across from his Spitzer Plaza Hotel on Broadway and the city’s Grove Site park.

In 1997, Spitzer proposed an energetic plan to build condominiums, homes and a commercial center around the marina he owns on the east side of the river. A revised version of the plan is expected to go before Lorain City Council this month.

Although it appeared that the casino issue was dead, Spitzer said yesterday that he was not ready to let go of the idea.

“A casino will bring development and jobs to Lorain,” he said. Spitzer said casinos that have been built in neighboring states, including Indiana, draw customers from Ohio. “The parking lot is full of cars with Ohio license plates,” he said.

He said he would be looking at the makeup of the General Assembly after the next election. “We’ll be looking for a less-conservative legislature - one that would be more apt to support casino gambling,” he said.

Casino gambling could be brought to Ohio either through approval by the General Assembly or the voters. While Spitzer and his supporters spent $8.5 million on their unsuccessful 1996 attempt, his opponents, led by Voinovich, spent only about $1 million.

The Rev. John E. Adams, a Sandusky pastor and a consultant to the Ohio Roundtable on casino gambling, said the public policy group that fought Spitzer’s plans in 1990 and 1996 would fight any new effort by Spitzer.

“My first reaction is - what part of ‘no’ don’t, you understand?” Adams said. He noted that voters defeated the issue by a wide margin.

Adams said he understood Spitzer’s motivation in continuing to press for approval. “A casino makes the owners rich and does not help the community,” he said. “Gambling casinos have only one product: the losers they turn out the door.”

Roundtable President David Zanotti said he was not surprised that Spitzer was considering another campaign.

Zanotti said he was “concerned about the signals Taft is sending” on gambling, referring to Taft’s recent plans to expand the lottery and to introduce a multistate game. He said he was sure Spitzer’s group was reading them the same way.

“We understand this industry very well. People should understand that the casino is a phenomenal money machine,” Zanotti said.

Lorain Mayor Joseph Koziura, a former state legislator who supported Spitzer’s two previous attempts to bring casino gambling to the city, could not be reached for comment.