SIDES DEBATE GAMBLING ISSUE

LARGE CROWD ATTENDS FORUM: A crowd of more than 285 attended a forum concerning riverboat gambling Tuesday night at a meeting room in the Show Me Center. The event was sponsored by KZIM Radio and the Cape Girardeau County League of Women Voters. (SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN)

More than 285 people attended a forum Tuesday on riverboat gambling, where opponents claimed legalized gambling would impoverish Cape Girardeau morally and proponents lauded a casino's economic benefits.

"I don't believe this is a moral issue," said Charles Ruthe, president of The Boyd Group, a Las Vegas-based gaming company that has proposed bringing a riverboat casino to Cape Girardeau. "It's a jobs issue.

"If you don't have good morals, you're going to do the same thing with or without gaming."

But Dr. Charles Martin, a local physician and member of Citizens Against Riverboat Gambling, said there's a problem with temptation.

"Many people will never go to gamble unless the temptation is there," he said. "The best way to deal with temptation is to avoid it."

Tuesday's forum, held at Cape Girardeau's Show Me Center, was sponsored by KZIM radio and the Cape Girardeau County League of Women Voters. Voters on June 8 will decide whether to approve riverboat gambling in Cape Girardeau.

At the forum, audience members and representatives of the local media asked questions of a four-member panel on both sides of the gambling issue.

The panel included Ruthe, Martin, the Rev. Craig Nessan of St. Mark Lutheran Church and a professor at Southeast Missouri State University, and Aleece Vogt of the Alton Belle Casino in Alton, Ill.

The liveliest exchange in the two-hour event centered on the morality of city-sanctioned gambling.

Ruthe agreed that society's morals have shifted, but he said the problems that plague the nation such as drug and alcohol abuse are unrelated to and far more serious than gambling.

"There are all kinds of morals out there today," said Ruthe. "The morality of society has changed, but ... you blame that on gaming."

Vogt said that if persons are 21 and old enough to vote, drink alcohol, and go to war, they're old enough to "monitor their own money. If you cannot do this, then you should stay off the boat."

But Martin said that although morality changes, "God's laws haven't." He related gambling to a disease that started in Nevada in 1931 and now is spreading to the remainder of the country.

Nessan said Cape Girardeau ~churches are "remarkably one on this issue." He said that's because gambling is "antithetical" to Christianity, which appeals to "gen~erosity and self-sacrifice... not selfishness.

"It's a life of discipline, hard work and family unity, not family disintegration," he added. "They know that wealth is a trust to be used for family and neighbors not to be squandered."

Ruthe described himself as a family man who, as a single parent, has raised three children, two of whom have graduated college and the third who will enter college in the fall.

He said The Boyd Group is dedicated to philanthropy and civic responsibility.

Ruthe said gaming is a popular form of entertainment, now legal in 48 states, that can bring jobs and revenue to the city.

But Martin disputed Ruthe's claims of economic boon.

"There's no free meal," he said. Martin said the riverboat company would realize the profits at the expense of Southeast Missourians who patronize the boat.

"It's amazing to me to think this is going to be anything but an economic siphon for Southeast Missouri," he said. "Anybody who depends on Southeast Missourians for their business will be hurt."

Martin said the economic projections provided by Boyd Group officials show a profit to the company of $35 million annually, which he said would "go back to Las Vegas."

Nessan said: "They can throw a few bones to the local economy because they're taking home all the meat."

But Ruthe countered that the company must pay expenses out of the $35 million net revenue. "The Boyd Group plans on taking out $4 million on a $40 million investment," he said.

Vogt said that in one year, the Alton Belle has generated nearly $11 million for Illinois and Alton. The city is about to embark on a $3 million renovation of the riverfront using the funds, and the state has earmarked gambling revenue for education.

Vogt said the greatest benefit, though, has been increased visitors and bus tours to the city. "In that one year, I have brought in, tour and travel-wise, 1,100 groups to the Alton Belle," she said.

The panelists also discussed whether crime increases with legalized gambling.

Martin said that in New Jersey, crime increased dramatically after gambling was legalized. He also said 45 percent of inmates are imprisoned for committing crimes related to gambling debts.

Nessan said the reason Las Vegas has a relatively low crime rate is because of a huge police force.

But Ruthe charged that the "perceptions and facts again are being distorted."

He said the per capita crime rate in St. Louis, without gambling, is more than double that of Las Vegas, while there are more policemen for less population in St. Louis. He said the same is true for Kansas City.

When asked what type of city Cape Girardeau would become with riverboat gambling, the panelists were split.

Martin said: "I picture Cape Girardeau as no longer the clean-cut, American city it is. I see a place that is progressively deteriorated with more poor, not less; more unemployment, not less."

Vogt said she imagined educated, "morally sound people, who can judge for themselves. I think it can only do good for the area."

Nessan said: "The example for our children, in terms of what is a decent life, would be undermined," while Ruthe said he thought the city would remain a "fine community."