LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: JUST LOOK AT ATLANTIC CITY

To the Editor:

It is true that riverboat gambling would bring in more money to Cape and some of its greedy merchants. But for that quick buck, they do not recognize what will certainly happen to them -- and Cape in the near future as it did to Atlantic City over the years.

First the increased east/west traffic from hundreds and thousands of gamblers will inhibit me and many of their regular customers from driving to them. So they will not get continuing big increases in sales, but a certain decrease from "regulars" who then will go elsewhere to avoid traffic tie-ups, more wild drunk drivers and drug sellers.

Then, as the case of Atlantic City shows us so definitely, this batch of visitors did not spend much more of their money at local shops and restaurants that blossomed when Atlantic City was a happy short-vacation get-away for frenetic New Yorkers -- who stopped coming to Atlantic City as it degenerated, as would Cape. So a great many of Atlantic City's shop and eateries went broke, which is shown yesterday and today by boarded-up store fronts, which were full when Atlantic City was a happy place to come to, before gamblers took over.

So, Cape would get more gambling dollars. But don't overlook that much of it would have to be put to upgrading pot-holed streets and paying for many more heavily armed police to reduce crime and drug traffickers that came to Atlantic City when it became the only gambling area east of the Mississippi.

But in the end Cape and these shop owners and restaurateurs will lose money down the line, as happened in Atlantic City. But what really hurts me is that the calm, ever-friendly atmosphere of Cape would disappear in the changed gambling, higher crime town.

After living in 30 states, fostered in part by 30 years in the Naval Air Corps, I came back to Cape despite lower job pay because of its ever-friendly, neighborly atmosphere I seldom found anywhere else as a precursor to a happier life for me and mine.

If gambling passes, and Cape goes down like Atlantic City, I guess I can move elsewhere, unless I lose my life to a drunk driver celebrating his gambling wins/losses, or even a hold-up or drug guy looking for those dollars.

So Cape's honest, friendly voters, or the gamblers will decide my future -- and that of Cape.

Charles E. Stiver

Cape Girardeau