LETTERS: NO ON GAMBLING

To the editor:

The Nov. 3 election will provide Missourians with an opportunity to vote on gambling. Amendment 9, if passed, would make it legal for gambling boats to be permanently docked. Before we give the gambling industry this advantage, let's consider some important aspects of the issue.

Gambling is not family friendly. Over the past six years, we have read about robberies, murders and arrests due to gambling. Individuals have been murdered after they have won money and left the boat with their winnings in Metropolis. People with gambling addictions have embezzled money from their employers in St. Louis. There have been bankruptcies and divorces when a family member has squandered his paycheck on gambling rather than bringing it home to support the family in Southeast Missouri and throughout the state. Talk to any attorney, and he or she will probably be able to relay some similar incident. Gambling is not good for Missouri, because it is anti-family.

The gambling industry argues that it is good for Missouri, because it helps finance education. However, Missouri's annual education costs are in the neighborhood of $3.5 billion. The gambling industry's contribution is merely $100 million. The money from gambling comes at a great expense to the family, which adds problems for each classroom. In truth, the havoc wreaked on families and communities by gambling is far more detrimental than useful.

Gambling is touted as a form of entertainment. But do we need this kind of entertainment? If anyone has recently made a trip to Las Vegas, as I did last year while passing through to Arizona, the fruition of years of gambling would be quite evident. Las Vegas looks like an adult version of Disney World. With my family in a rented van, we saw adult-entertainment billboards everywhere. Intermixed with these were large children's entertainment parks which no doubt cost staggering amounts of money to construct -- all gamblers' losses. While in traffic observing these elaborate restaurants and parks, we had taxis with large signs of scantily clad women bearing nearly all pull up next to us and in front of us. As we waited through the numerous red lights, my children -- all under 10 -- had quite a view. It reminded me of Pottersville in the Jimmy Stewart movie, "It's a Wonderful Life."

All these examples are from Nevada, a bit more than a stone's throw from Missouri. But Las Vegas started small and grew over time. How many more gambling billboards and commercials are we seeing these days? How many times has a gambling issue been on the ballot? Gambling in Missouri is a dangerous, slippery slope that we must be careful not to fall down.

The casinos were in flagrant violation of the Missouri Constitution when their boats were docked in moats. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled they had to be on the river to comply with the law. Now the casinos want our help to change that law to make gambling easier for them. Let's not be so quick to concede.

For the family's sake, vote no on Amendment 9. Let's limit gambling in Missouri. Let gamblers vacation in Las Vegas. Let's not bring Las Vegas to Missouri.

KATHY McCLELLAN

Sikeston