GAMBLING REVENUE IS TINY PART OF TOTAL

Missouri's gambling industry, as was predicted when voters first approved the state lottery and then riverboat casinos, continues to push for fewer restrictions and more opportunities for gambling activities. The casinos, in particular, have been aided and abetted by a Missouri Gaming Commission eager to let the riverboats do just about anything they wanted.

Show Me folks have watched as the notion of cruising riverboats up and down the Missouri and Mississippi rivers went down the drain. Not only were the floating casinos allowed to dock permanently -- safety considerations, you know -- many have been allowed in moats. This has created quite a snafu following a Missouri Supreme Court decision that games of chance -- slot machines in particular -- are allowed only on casinos on the rivers, not in ponds.

So the gambling industry intends to have an initiative issue on November's ballot that will ask Missourians to approve slot machines on casinos in moats as well as on the rivers (see following editorial).

Since the riverboats started their gambling operations a few years ago, part of their public-relations campaign has been to continuously remind Missourians how much education is benefiting from casino revenue. Major news outlets have steadfastly reported that gambling provides a "major" or "significant" portion of school funding in the state -- reports that consistently have failed to include numbers that put such claims in perspective.

Last week, the Southeast Missourian examined the funding to education provided by gambling in our state. The result: As a percentage of total spending on public schools and colleges, gambling produces a small amount. And when you check gambling revenue against the total state budget, the impact is minuscule.

For example, in the fiscal year that ended this week, the state took in a total of $290.3 million from riverboats, the lottery and bingo. Those revenue sources provided 5.9 percent of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's spending, and 9.3 percent of the spending on higher education. In the new fiscal year that started Wednesday, the state estimates total gambling revenue will provide just 5.3 percent of elementary and secondary education funding and only 7.4 percent of state funding for higher education.

Another way to look at gambling revenue is to compare it to total state spending. The fiscal 1999 budget is $15.4 billion, and gambling will contribute only 1.8 percent of that -- or about enough to run state government for six and a half days.

These are important figures, because the gambling industry will be touting its contributions to education as Election Day approaches. Would the state suffer if it lost riverboat revenue? Just remember that riverboats and bingo combined are expected to produce only $135.8 million in this fiscal year. That's about eight-tenths of 1 percent of total state spending.