CRUISE-LESS CASINOS GET COURT CHALLENGE

Missourians have been given a "dose of broken promises" as far as riverboat gambling is concerned. That is the opinion of state Rep. Todd Akin of St. Louis, who filed a lawsuit last year challenging the Missouri Gaming Commission decision to allow a permanently docked casino near the Missouri River in the St. Louis area. The case has reached the Missouri Supreme Court, which heard arguments this week.

Akin and others who consider decisions by state gambling officials to be a sham believe riverboat excursions and loss limits for gamblers were diversions to get Missourians to approve riverboat gambling. It was the intention of the gaming companies, Akin and members of an organization called Casino Watch believe, to set up shop under one set of rules and then work hard to have the rules changed.

Indeed, casino lobbyists have worked hard to get the state's $500 loss limit removed. The loss limit was seen by some as a way of protecting gamblers from losing too much money during each visit to a riverboat casino.

But what the lobbyists haven't been able to accomplish legislatively, the state's gaming commission has pretty much accomplished through its decisions.

Take cruising riverboats, for example.

At the outset, riverboat gambling was relegated to huge barges decorated to look like old-time steamboats. These boats would cruise up and down the Missouri and Mississippi rivers while gambler pulled the arms of slot machines or played blackjack.

It didn't take long for gaming companies to seek exemptions to this requirement, saying the river was unsafe for navigation by the floating casinos. The obvious response of the gaming commission should have been, "Well, if you don't cruise, then you can't allow any gamblers on your riverboat." Simple, but certainly within the parameters set by Missouri voters.

Instead, the commission, said, "OK, you don't have to cruise anymore."

The issue before the Supreme Court goes another step further. The lawsuit questions whether a gambling casino that is land-based -- it doesn't even have an engine to cruise with -- is within the spirit of the voters' intentions.

Little by little, Missouri has become simply another state that allows gambling rather than a state that limits gambling to cruising riverboats. It appears the gaming companies are getting their way, one way or another.