LETTERS FROM HOME: TAKING A GAMBLE

Taking a gamble

October 28, 1993

Dear Julie,

Round 2 of the great gambling debate is Tuesday. We denizens will decide whether we want Cape Girardeau to become a gambling town or maintain the status quo. Quo is low unemployment, nice parks, deteriorating school buildings, a struggling downtown. The town's population -- about 35,000 -- hasn't changed much in the past 10 years. Some people think that's fine, some don't.

Since this is the second time the town has voted on gambling -- it lost by about 500 votes last June -- the issues and positions are pretty well defined. It's probably come down to who gets out the vote.

I cover the gambling story, so I've gotten to know the personalities on both sides a bit. The anti-gambling people are not as narrow-minded as the pro-gambling people think they are, and the pro-gambling people are not as greedy as the other side believes.

Greed versus moral rigidity, a classic confrontation. Except it seems to me the two sides simply disagree on the means to achieving the same end: maintaining the quality of life for the people who live here.

The pro-gambling group consists mostly of upstanding downtown business people backed up by a Las Vegas gaming company that says it wants to spend about $38 million putting an attraction in their backyards. But if they are guilty of anything it may be naivete.

At one forum, an anti-gambling speaker was talking about an Illinois city where the downtown hasn't benefited from the riverboat casino. He said the gamblers leave most of their money on the boat. A gambling advocate said that's because the parking lot in the town is two miles from the boat. The situation in Cape Girardeau is different, he said, because the gaming company is going to build a parking garage right next to the boat.

I could have told him that the gaming company in that Illinois town was going to build a parking garage downtown too, but when it came time to pour concrete they got a better idea: Buy some cheap property across town, put some gravel on it and run a shuttle.

At that point the city already was counting its tax booty so they let the gambling company get away with a promise to build that parking garage someday. The mayor, who told me this story, said the company had been a model corporate citizen and a good local employer. They'd even picked one of his best friends to be their CEO.

I know people don't trust politicians -- you're welcome -- or journalists much, but when did we get passed up by Las Vegas gamblers?

The anti-gambling group grew out of the local ministerial alliance, but some physicians and a conservative councilman are also visible. More upstanding citizens. Defeated gambling in the last election even though outspent by about $150,000. On Sunday, most of the pulpits in town will be getting out the vote from on high.

Will a gambling boat be the beginning of the end of Cape Girardeau as we know it? That's hard to imagine. There is, after all, something good about a willingness to take chances. Creating a work of art or a family is both a roll of the dice and an act of faith.

Except for the lone councilman, the politicians are all neutral like me. Riverboat gambling almost has become a litmus-test issue, and quite a number of people -- especially those whose livelihoods could be affected by their opinion -- are having none right now. Of course, that's the secret ballot's terrible beauty.

I still wonder what it really feels like to be married. Since you live closer to my wife than I do, maybe you could check in on her sometime, make sure she's happy.

Love, Sam