GAMING COMMISSION AGAIN HEELS TO CASINOS

Never mind the Missouri Supreme Court, which decided last November that riverboat casinos with games of chance -- slot machines -- must be on the main channels of the Mississippi or Missouri rivers, not in artificial ponds. The Missouri Gaming Commission went ahead last week and licensed another boat in a moat in St. Joseph.

The gaming commission's logic? There are ongoing efforts to change the law to allow boats in moats, so the St. Joseph casino should be allowed to operate like other existing boats in moats until the issue is finally resolved. Finally resolved? What about a Supreme Court ruling?

The gaming commission, once again, has chosen to chart its own stormy course along the shoals of gambling special interests.