CRUSADER TAKES ON GAMBLING; HE PASTS `INDUSTRY OF BROKEN PROMISES'

DUBUQUE, Iowa The Rev. Tom Grey is an anti-gambling crusader who lives in Galena, Ill., a town of 4,000 just 20 miles from the gambling boats on the river in Dubuque.

"You are cannibalizing your own citizens," he says of the cities which have taken the gambling option.

Grey works with a group called Illinois Church Action Program on Alcohol Problems. The organization has widened its focus to include gambling because it is addictive. Addicted gamblers usually have other past or present addictions, they said.

The group's goal is to check the proliferation of gambling until the social and economic effects of the casinos already in place can be assessed.

"We've said enough is enough," he said.

They've gone into Illinois counties where gambling already is established and in five out of five tries have passed advisory referendums calling for a community vote before any more gambling boats are allowed. In Illinois, the municipal governments themselves may approve gambling.

Eighty percent of the voters approved such a referendum last November in Massac County, home of Metropolis' riverboat.

"We took the developers on on their promises," Grey said.

States have embraced riverboat gambling because leaders no longer know how to govern and are afraid of taxes, Grey says.

"There's so much money to made and the politicians don't have any ideas."

The organization also has worked to defeat politicians who help bring in the riverboats.

He calls gambling "an industry of broken promises," pointing to Bob Kehl's decision to abandon Dubuque.

Grey contends that 75 percent of the people who come to a riverboat live within a 30-mile radius of it. He said this figure was disputed by Kehl, who maintains 50 percent is a more accurate number.

"They're taking money that would be spent on other things," Grey said. "And 80 cents of every dollar goes to the owners.

"To get $200,000 a month, you might have a couple million being lost by your people," he said.

Riverboat gambling presents a different situation than the U.S.'s previous gambling centers, Grey said.

"Las Vegas works because most of the people come from outside."

He predicts Cape Girardeau's anti-gambling forces will lose the election Tuesday if their message has focussed on moral issues.

While decrying the addictive nature of gambling, Grey said his organization succeeds by focussing on economics.

"We believe it is not good government," he said. "What kind of government caves in and takes money from its citizens to pay for education?"

Government eventually becomes part of the gambling industry, Grey said.

"It becomes addicted to (gambling)."