Online game debuts

Tuesday, May 28, 2002 | 11:02 a.m.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A little more of Sin City comes to the Show-Me State today.

The Missouri Lottery will roll out its newest game -- online keno, modeled on the high-speed Las Vegas version. The game will open in about 470 bars, restaurants, bowling alleys and fraternal organizations.

Lottery commissioners expect Quick Draw keno to pull in $79 million in sales the first year. After the winning players, the retailers and the commission get their shares, the profits -- about $21 million -- will go to public schools under the 2003 budget.

Gov. Bob Holden, over the objections of some lawmakers who decried the expansion of gambling, endorsed keno in his January state of the state message as an important new source of revenue in tight fiscal times.

"It was a year where we were looking under rocks, in sofas, under cushions -- anywhere we could, to find money in the toughest budget year in years," Holden's spokesman, Jerry Nachtigal, said.

"Keno certainly was a badly needed source of income for our education priorities."

Others disagreed, saying it was irresponsible to promote gambling to pay for education.

Republican state Rep. Pat Kelley proposed a bill, which failed, that would have quashed keno and required voter approval for any new gambling game.

Kelley said keno's quick pace and accessibility -- especially in places where patrons are likely to be drinking alcohol -- pose hazards.

"It's one of the most addictive forms of gambling," he said, "and it's going to be put in bars and restaurants across the state, where it's going to be much more accessible to people than other types of lottery."