LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: GAMBLING IS SNARE, DELUSION

To the Editor:

Five months have not changed a thing.

Knowing it is repetitious, let me say again: Riverboat gambling, no matter in what light its promoters and proponents chose to cast it, is nothing but a snare and a delusion.

"It snares the unwary, it preys on those least able to afford it, it deludes the ones it proposes to help" (except the House).

If in the eyes of voters last June riverboat gambling was an affront to those who have worked so hard over the years to make Cape Girardeau the city it is today, it remains an affront to them today.

Let me tell you some of the things that bother me about this forthcoming election.

First, I do not like to see transient young people, our college students, used as pawns for political and selfish purposes. Except for those who live here, they have no stake in Cape Girardeau's future.

Second, it bothers me when euphemisms ("An inoffensive term substituted for one considered offensively explicit") are used as a cloak to delude the public, i.e. gaming instead of gambling. Gambling's reputation is out for all to see.

Third, and disparate, I am bothered by the silence of the Boyd group and proponents as to the location of their gambling enterprise.

In the prior election, we saw repeatedly the drawing of a pleasure palace entry over the floodwall from the parking lot at the foot of Broadway.

This time we have not seen this pathway to the riverboat, nor have we heard it mentioned by the proponents of gambling.

The fact is that site cannot be used. That location is where towboats line up for their run beneath the traffic bridge. A gambling boat there would be in imminent danger from each tow that passed heading south. The location would never be allowed.

The Boyd group has purchased the old shoe factory site on N. Main from the chamber of commerce. Are we to suppose that this will be the location of the pleasure palace entry? The great question becomes: Would the Corps of Engineers allow an overpass of the floodwall there or any other place? Just how safe and feasible would any such location be under a rising and falling Mississippi? Proponents have been mute both this time and the last about such permission being granted.

Well, if the boat cannot be anchored at the foot of Broadway, or at the old shoe factory site, then where? That moves us somewhere north, away from the floodwall or the dirt levee. How does the Honkers Boat Dock grab you? Admittedly, and without apology, this hypothesis is based on the Corps of Engineers rejection of any site that crosses the floodwall or levee. The gambling group, by their silence, has given us no reason to believe otherwise.

Continuing with this belief, how is the Main Street business district to prosper from riverboat gambling? Presumed prosperity was tenuous when the location was proposed at Broadway. It is much more so when the pleasure palace entry is moved many blocks northward, whether over the wall or elsewhere. How many people are going to leave the gambling boat to go far southward to shop or eat? The Main Street bonanza will never happen.

Fourth, it bothers me that proponents continue to try to mislead the public that there is high unemployment in Cape Girardeau and the county. It simply is not true. Cape County has an unemployment rate of a little over 4 percent and has one of the highest employment rates in Missouri. Riverboat gambling would alter but little this figure. Too, is it the type of employment we wish to encourage?

Fifth, I am boggled that those who favor riverboat, or any other formal gambling, ignore the absolute fact that the House always wins. Some take home winnings, of course, but the House always - always - wins. Why do they suppose the Boyd group is spending thousands ($163,000 plus the last time, more this journey around) to win this election? Do the proponents really believe their main thought is for the betterment (?) of Cape Girardeau?

There are many more reasons their writer opposes riverboat gambling. Let these stand, however, among the most pertinent.

In closing, let me suggest this: Be a real winner. Vote no on riverboat gambling on Nov. 2

JOHN L. BLUE

Cape Girardeau