LETTERS: LET'S MAKE CASINOS DO RIGHT THING

To the editor:

As to fairness, the casino industry promised us one thing (romantic, nostalgic riverboat cruises with a touch of family entertainment) and has giving us quite another (smoky casinos that float in a moat where neighbors, not tourists, go to spend money they really can't afford to lose).

When the Missouri Supreme Court has told the casino owners they have done something against the law, instead of doing something that is right and fair, they have spent millions of dollars to change the law and continue to spend millions of dollars to keep slot machines in their boats in the moats. Is that fair? If the Supreme Court told you and I to do something, I suspect we would be made to do it.

As to jobs, if Amendment 9 fails, the gambling industry would have to remove the slot machines from the boats. There are not a great number of jobs associated with the maintenance and emptying of these machines. But there is a lot of money taken from our neighbors this way, money that would otherwise be going to food, clothing and more constructive and desirable forms of recreation.

Let's clean up our state and feel better about ourselves. Let's take the responsibility to make the casinos do the fair thing and do the job of obeying the law.

RICHARD A. MARTIN, M.D.

Cape Girardeau