GAMBLING LOSSES

There was a time in Missouri when gambling in any form was forbidden. Even the state's Constitution of 1945 addressed the issue by forbidding the General Assembly to authorize gambling. All of that has changed over the years. First it was bingo. Then the state lottery. And then riverboat gambling.

It was during those years when both legal and moral sanctions kept gambling activity in the realm of the dark recesses of crime and corruption that the state enacted laws to protect gamblers who lost their life's savings at games of chance. Although the Constitution has been amended and other laws have been enacted to permit various forms of gambling, the law allowing losers to get their money back from unscrupulous gamblers was never taken off the books.

And so a Kansas City man who recently lost more than $20,000 at a riverboat casino has found a lawyer willing to sue the casino using the out-of-date Missouri law. Moreover, the man is seeking to make his lawsuit a class action, which means anyone who has ever lost money on slot machines, playing blackjack or any of the other now-legal gambling games could get the money back.

Lawyers for both the casino and the Missouri Gaming Commission have been quick to pooh-pooh the lawsuit as little more than a publicity stunt. The net result of the losing gambler's legal effort, in all likelihood, will be that a judge will declare the old law null and void.

On the other hand, judges don't always take the expected course. A judge might, for example, want to make the point that laws adopted by state legislators ought not to be fudged by the judicial branch of government, unless there are constitutional questions to consider. And the Missouri Constitution has been amended so often that it is a patchwork of changes that reflect how much morality and lifestyles have changed in the 50 years since the current version was adopted.

The flip side of the losing gambler's lawsuit, it has been suggested, would be that casinos might sue to recover the winnings they have had to pay out during the few years gambling has been legal. So far, no gambler has volunteered to give back a jackpot.