LETTERS: VOTERS SHOULD RECONSIDER GAMBLING

To the editor:

It's time for the voters of Missouri to kill the lottery and curb the casinos.

The lottery was originally approved by voters with the understanding that advertising would not be used to promote ticket sales and that the proceeds would go to public education. We were misled on both accounts. The state has used advertising almost from the beginning to promote sales, and the proceeds were not earmarked for education. Later, in an attempt to become legal and to reduce public backlash, the law was amended to allow advertising and to earmark the proceeds for public education. Now the lottery is everywhere. You can't get away from it.

And look at riverboat gambling. The voters originally approved the boats with the understanding they would cruise the major rivers. They approval was based not just on gambling, but on color, nostalgia and a tie to the past. Then they did away with the need to cruise, and the boats simply stayed at the dock, becoming, in effect, not riverboats as originally intended, but casinos built next to the rivers. Now some sit in moats and never touch the rivers. They are just casinos with a distant relation to what the voters originally intended.

I am not a moralist. I do not oppose an individual's right to gamble. But I do oppose government-run gambling. Our government should be the best it can possibly be. It is our collective vision, our collective conscience, indeed our collective future and well-being. It should not promote bad habits. It should not exploit people. It should not discriminate against people. I should always take the high road and should never do things that erode its credibility. Government-run gambling promotes bad habits, exploits those who gamble and discriminates against the poor. How can we believe and trust our government on matters of grave importance when that same government is urging us to buy a lottery ticket?

The Missouri Legislature spends a lot of time each session on gambling matters. This session, it is discussing loss limits (yet again), boats in moats and slot machines in homes. Is this what we elect our legislators to do? Should this be the business of government? Has the gambling industry become such a powerful special-interest group that it can affect our legislative process, indeed the honesty of our legislators?

Certainly gambling makes a lot of money for the state. But does that help the taxpayer, or does that simply promote more government? Did the gambling revenue earmarked for education actually increase the total revenue that goes to our schools, or did it just reduce the amount that was previously appropriated, resulting in no net change? The state is in the process of sending money back to taxpayers because the total state revenue has exceeded the amount allowed by our Constitution. What is the advantage of allowing and promoting gambling when the state is taking in more money than it should?

I think we should be the first to turn around on gambling. Let's revisit the whole issue. Let's kill the lottery and curb the casinos. Let's demand that our government be the best it can be.

GARY L. GAINES

Dexter