AMENDMENT 9: VOTE NO ON BOATS IN MOATS

Amendment 9: "Shall the Constitution be amended to authorize the General Assembly to permit upon the Mississippi and Missouri rivers only, including artificial spaces containing water that are within 1,000 feet of the closest edge of the main channel of either of those rivers, lotteries, gift enterprises and games of chance to be conducted on excursion gambling boats and floating facilities and to provide that any license issued before or after the adoption of this amendment for any such boat or facility located in any such artificial space shall be deemed authorized by the general assembly and compliant with this section?"

Missourians will vote one week from today on Amendment 9, which is sponsored and paid for by the gambling industry and which addresses the boats-in-moats question.

How we got to this point bears detailed discussion. Six years ago next week, by an overwhelming margin, Missouri voters approved casino gambling in riverboats that would, we were told, cruise Missouri's two great rivers, the Missouri and Mississippi. Every single television ad in the campaign for passage of the constitutional amendment back in 1992 showed riverboats cruising the river, evoking romantic images of the bygone era when such transportation was so much a part of our state's heritage.

The following year, at the behest of Gov. Mel Carnahan, the Legislature passed enabling legislation which, among other things, created a Missouri Gaming Commission. This commission, whose members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate, was charged with the power to grant operating licenses to companies and regulate the industry.

This the commission proceeded to do. Within a few years it became clear that almost none of the companies granted licenses had any intention of cruising the river in the manner originally sold to voters. In fact, of all the boats licensed in Missouri, only the boat at Caruthersville actually cruises at all.

Not content to violate their original compact with voters concerning cruising, the gambling companies proceeded to wring from a compliant Gaming Commission permission to construct artificial moats adjacent to the rivers in which to build their multimillion-dollar casinos. This the commission sanctioned by granting licenses. Licenses in hand, the casinos in moats were built.

Along came gambling opponents with a lawsuit challenging this practice, which in due course landed in the Supreme Court. Last fall that court ruled, correctly and courageously, that boats-in-moats violated the Constitution and the original deal sold to voters. Boats that were to cruise "on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers," the court held, meant just that, and artificial boats-in-moats didn't qualify.

Now comes the gambling industry complaining and whining that it hasn't been dealt with fairly. It's asking you to make right what the casinos fouled up with a big assist from the Gaming Commission.

Voters should say, "No dice."

This isn't the original deal sold to voters in 1992. Far from it: Nearly every major promise made to voters then has been violated or compromised not only by the gambling companies, but by a Gaming Commission that bears most of the responsibility for this fiasco.

The gambling industry wants you to believe schools will suffer if Amendment 9 goes down. But their own numbers show that they generate less than $100 million for schools per year. Missouri's budget for schools is $3.5 billion annually. And the casinos want you to believe thousands of Missourians will lose their jobs if they have to shut down riverboats in moats. If they're riverboats, why can't they cruise on over to a river and become legal?

We urge a NO vote on Amendment 9. If we are going to have this industry in our state, it should be according to the original deal sold to the voters in 1992. Six years of flim-flam is enough.