BE OUR GUEST: A HUGE INCREASE IN CRIME IS CERTAIN WITH CASINO GAMBLING

Morley Swingle is prosecuting attorney of Cape Girardeau County.

As a prosecutor in Cape Girardeau County during the past decade, I have had very little experience with gambling or prostitution cases. Our clean college town with four percent unemployment has not given its prosecutor any reason to become an expert in the areas of gambling, prostitution, public corruption and organized crime. Not yet, anyway.

I have read the claims of the proponents of casino gambling that any increase in crime would be small. I've read the opposite point of view from the opponents of legalized gambling. Who is right?

Realizing that my job description might be changing in the near future based upon the answer to the question, I recently contacted Thomas E. Dittmeier, the former U.S. Attorney in St. Louis, who is well-recognized as one of the most experienced prosecutors in the country, and who is an expert on prosecuting organized crime. The information I received from him is downright scary. He sent me a report prepared by his staff while he was the federal prosecutor in St. Louis. He said I should begin preparing for a myriad of problems that will come to our community if casino gambling is established at our riverfront:

1. Tremendous increase in street crime: Legalized casino gambling in a town is accompanied by an enormous increase of street crimes in areas where casinos are located, as violent criminals are drawn to well-publicized areas where they expect to find victims carrying cash. In the seven months following the opening of the first casino in Atlantic City in 1978, crime rates in Atlantic City rose by 39 percent. After the first three years, crime rates in Atlantic City had jumped by 171 percent, while the surrounding counties' crime index rose only 26 percent.

From 1977 to 1980, aggravated assault increased by 111 percent; robbery by 151 percent; stolen automobiles by 163 percent; and larceny by 297 percent. Many of the victims were out-of-town residents (making the cases expensive to prosecute, since you have to bring them back for trial). A "prime target" of the criminals were the elderly. Perhaps the most scary fact: 95 percent of the persons arrested for crimes against the person (murder, rape, robbery, assault) in Atlantic City during the first four years after gambling was legalized were from out-of-town. The casinos had lured these violent street criminals to town to roam for victims. The New Jersey Casino Control Commission reported in 1989: "The conclusion appears inescapable that casino gambling is a magnet for street criminals."

Our caseload in Cape Girardeau is already big enough. It is a sobering thought to imagine what it would be like if my current caseload were only 5 percent of what I was prosecuting. The Dittmeier report also said that prostitution and loan sharking became rampant in Atlantic City around the casinos, and arson increased enormously.

2. Organized crime is attracted by casino gambling. Gambling casinos and the industries that service them attract organized crime. "The vast amount of money that flows daily through a casino operation and the large number of unrecorded transactions make the industry a particularly attractive and vulnerable one for organized crime ... Infiltration of casinos by organized crime groups through ownership, management or even key gameroom positions can mean huge illegal profits from skimming operations. Skimming can occur in casino operations through kickbacks, fictitious bills, fictitious gaming loss, fictitious cash advances and manipulation of receivables records. Organized crime is also interested in not only the actual casino operations, but also with the businesses that service and supply the casinos, such as supplying linen, food, garbage collection, and janitorial services."

The Pennsylvania Crime Commission found that gamblers are prime clients for loan sharks, prostitution and drug sales, all areas dominated at the highest levels by organized crime.

3. Casino gambling attracts organized crime to the labor unions involved. "Given the enormous costs of a casino facility, the price of delay is staggering, and making hidden payments to outsiders or insiders becomes enticing." Numerous investigations are currently in progress of labor union leaders who allegedly accepted bribes from casinos to ensure labor peace.

4. Casino gambling presents a danger of public corruption. Obviously, our public officials are either incorruptible or weak. I'd like to think they are all incorruptible. We may soon have the chance to find out. Studies show that public corruption goes hand-in-hand with casino gambling. Since such high stakes ride on the licensing, regulation and control of casinos, "pressures exerted on government officials and institutions have been relentless where casino gambling has been legalized.

Public corruption persists despite legislative attempts to prohibit conflicts of interest in both Nevada and New Jersey."

5. Legalized casino gambling does not reduce illegal gambling but increases it. Statistics show that illegal gambling increases once legalization is started, as those who are lured into legal gambling extend their habit to illegal wagering.

Our community will be deciding on June 8, 1993 whether to allow casino gambling upon our riverfront. I urge you to vote "no" so I don't have to become an expert on these issues previously so uncommon in Cape Girardeau County.