GAMBLING KIDS? BILL WOULD ALLOW TOY PRIZES

There are more changes coming for Missouri's gamblers, if the Legislature approves a bill that has already passed the House and is awaiting final action in the Senate. One of those changes would give riverboats the go-ahead to start training our children to become regular gamblers.

Remember when riverboat gambling came to the Show Me State? This was after Missourians had grown accustomed to the idea of a state lottery, which officially was declared not to be gambling. Then bingo was permitted as a fund-raising activity for charitable organizations, even though bingo nights couldn't be legally advertised until this past year. Then came the riverboats, which many Missourians envisioned as charming examples of floating nostalgia that would give residents and tourists a taste of the river life made so famous by native son Mark Twain.

But, gambling being gambling, the casino landscape quickly changed. It only took a few months for riverboat operators to convince state regulators that the boats shouldn't travel up and down the rivers because of safety concerns. Then -- again with approval -- casinos were built on dry land with moats around them. It took a statewide vote last year to legalize that, after the fact.

There are many more goodies the casinos want and are likely to get. Some are handed out by the state's gaming commission. But occasionally even the gaming commission comes up against something it feels uncomfortable doing on its own, so the casinos turn to the Legislature for remedy.

The bill in the Senate makes several changes, including allowing pieces of plastic that look ever so much like credit cards to be sold to riverboat gamblers to use on slot machines. Why? Well, all those coins and even those tokens have been touched by goodness-knows-who. So it's a health issue. Those slot-machine coins just aren't sanitary.

Among the other changes in the bill is one that addresses the children of riverboat gamblers. What's a dedicated gambler to do with his or her kids while using that electronic card on the slots or playing some blackjack? The riverboats have the answer: Let us tend them for a few hours. And, to keep them happy, allow the kiddies to play games and test their skills at what the bill euphemistically calls "amusement machines" where the tykes could win prizes valued up to $300.

Here's what this part of the bill sounds like: Let's give riverboats the opportunity to establish playroom training for future gamblers who need to learn at a young age about good sanitation so they can avoid those nasty slot-machine coins and get the hang of how to use those credit-card sized pieces of plastic.

Is this what Missourians want?