Cape businessman to mount third challenge to gambling law

A Cape Girardeau businessman who has lost two legal challenges to a gambling law approved by voters said Tuesday he's ready to continue the fight.

David Knight, owner of Ole Hickory Pits and booster of a Cape Girardeau casino, lost his latest legal effort Tuesday when a three-judge panel of the Western District of the Missouri Court of Appeals ruled against him. The next step, Knight said, is to ask for another hearing before the full 11-member court. If that effort is rejected, he said the next step is to ask the Missouri Supreme Court to review the case.

The ruling issued Tuesday, Knight said, left several unanswered questions, including whether the judges truly had jurisdiction to make the decision.

"I don't wear a black dress, but somebody who does should be a little more clear," Knight said. "There are some issues on which they didn't render any kind of definitive decision."

Chuck Hatfield, an attorney for Proposition A backers, said the ruling leaves little room for further challenges. "There is nothing in the decision that is unique," Hatfield said. "It is upholding and reiterating the previous decisions."

Knight began his effort to scuttle the measure, which was on the November ballot as Proposition A, after the Missouri Gaming Commission imposed a moratorium on new casino licenses last summer. The commission took the step because, members said at the time, they didn't want to appear to be rushing licenses in order to beat the proposal's ban on new licenses.

As approved by voters, Proposition A eliminated the loss limit at Missouri casinos, limited the number of casino licenses to those already issued and raised taxes on casino profits. Proposition A also directed that additional revenue realized as a result of those changes should go to public schools and established a method for distributing the money and auditing whether it was used properly as an addition to education spending.

Knight, along with Rep. Ray Salva, D-Sugar Creek, joined forces in the lawsuit. Salva advocates for a casino in his Jackson County town. They initially lost in Cole County Circuit Court in October.

In the ruling, the court addressed the issue of its jurisdiction as well as constitutional and statutory challenges to Proposition A. The court decided it had the right to rule because the constitutional challenge was not "real and substantial" and therefore not in the jurisdiction of the Missouri Supreme Court.

In his lawsuit, Knight had sought to scuttle Proposition A on the grounds that the ballot title was misleading, that it failed to meet the legal forms required and that it included more than one subject in violation of the Missouri Constitution.

Those arguments were rejected by the trial court and again at the appellate court level.

The constitutional challenge was unconvincing, the three-member panel unanimously ruled.

"Proposition A effected multiple changes in the regulation of Missouri gaming, provided for a fund for gambling revenues, and directed how those gambling funds are to be managed and used," wrote Chief Judge Thomas H. Newton. "Consequently, the trial court did not err in finding that the measure's central purpose was the regulation of gambling and gambling revenues."

rkeller@semissourian.com

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