LETTERS: VOTE TO RECLAIM MISSOURI'S RIVERWAYS

To the editor:

Show me the river. They promised river cruises, a taste of history, romance, intrigue and family entertainment. Instead, we have a smoky casino that floats in a moat, a casino filled with local retirees willing to spend their children's inheritance as well as their own savings. Come on, Missouri, see the truth.

They promised family entertainment, but Station Casino St. Charles was fined $250,000 for permitting a 12-year-old to gamble.

They promised prosperity to surrounding business, yet they sucked away a third of Kansas City's Italian Garden restaurant business, necessitating a cut of half of the restaurant's work force. Cheap meals encourage people to come gamble while the local restaurants suffer.

They promised attractive surroundings, but an owner of five restaurants in St. Charles says, "Casinos have severely hurt my business. I can't even advertise anymore. The casinos monopolize billboards and drive up prices."

Show me the education benefits. Gambling proceeds are just over 3 percent of the total education budget and less than 1 percent of the total budget. Yet a recent University of Illinois study shows that for every dollar in tax revenue gambling raises, it creates $3 in cost to handle the economic disruption of compulsive gambling and crime.

Show me the personal and social benefits. Harvard's only study on gambling reports the cost to insurance companies is $65,468 per problem gambler. In Missouri, there is the potential for $400,000 in pathological and problem gamblers, and people under 25 who gamble have incidences as high as 10 percent.

A problem gambler is willing to embezzle or commit fraud to obtain gambling funds. He will use money out of savings or retirement and spend his paycheck or money otherwise destined for necessities. He will miss work to gamble.

It's time that the Show Me State show the gambling industry the door. In November, we have an opportunity to reclaim our riverways from the gamblers and kick them out of the moats and send them back to the dry docks of Nevada. Let's take this opportunity to make a statement for our children and our grandchildren. Take the time to vote against the boats in moats and let gamblers we know we don't appreciate broken promises.

RICHARD A. MARTIN, M.D.

Cape Girardeau