New political era raises questions about gaming

Paul Sloca

Friday, Nov. 15, 2002 | 11:10 a.m.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- With 102 freshman lawmakers heading to Jefferson City in January, gambling industry officials are unsure about what to expect.

Since voters approved riverboat gambling in 1992, state laws have been gradually relaxed. Slot machines have been added. And gambling "boats" no longer float on rivers but sit in adjacent moats.

More recently the casino industry has been lobbying to remove the $500 loss limit for each two-hour gambling session. Meanwhile some lawmakers have proposed higher gambling taxes as a way to help the state's budget.

The Joint Committee on Gaming and Wagering on Wednesday heard from state gambling regulators, casino owners and gambling opponents on a wide range of familiar issues in preparation for an annual gambling report to legislators required by state law.

Depleted by term limits and resignations, just four of 10 legislators who serve on the committee attended the two-hour hearing.

Rep. Jon Dolan, who serves on the committee and is likely to keep his position as a newly elected state senator, said old issues that divided the Legislature before will be cast aside.

"We can get beyond the old issues and the old fights of gaming and move into doing business, but accounting for every penny that the voters and people so richly deserve," Dolan, R-Lake St. Louis said. "We can spend the money wiser and we can run the business better and we can keep more promises."

According to the Missouri Gaming Commission, the $1.2 billion industry contributed more than $267 million in taxes to the state last fiscal year.

Kevin Mullally, the executive director of the Gaming Commission, told the committee that the gambling industry could "absorb a modest tax increase."

But Bill Grace, owner of a casino in St. Joseph, said he was concerned that additional tax burdens on casinos could do irreparable harm to the industry.

"The ability to tax is the ability to destroy," Grace told the committee. "The industry cannot solve the state of Missouri's budget problems."

Meanwhile gambling groups such as the Missouri Gaming Association believe that term limits has provided the industry with a chance to reintroduce itself to a new group of lawmakers.

"I think that the effects of term limits with all these new people coming in will give us a fresh chance to get away from the old fixed positions," Ryan said.

Mark Andrews, of the anti-gambling group Casino Watch, told the committee that he group wasn't trying to ban gambling outright but rather wanted a "tightening of restrictions."

Among the group's recommendations to the committee was to maintain the _$500 loss limit, cap the number of casino licenses and promote addiction programs for problem gamblers.

"We never envisioned that addiction would be as serious as it is in this state," Andrews said.

While many Democrats have been supporters of the gambling industry, the Republican takeover of the House coupled with a comfortable GOP majority in the state Senate could mean times have changed.

Prior to this year's elections, Republican-related committees took in more than twice as much casino money as their Democratic counterparts, according to campaign finance reports released in October.

Casinos were helping the GOP because they're upset with Democrats for trying to increase gambling taxes this year. A failed plan in the Legislature would have raised up to _$100 million for schools.

Sen. Ken Jacob, a gambling supporter and committee member, said he doesn't expect much activity on gambling issues during the upcoming legislative session.

"Status quo is probably predictable," said Jacob, D-Columbia. "Any backwards efforts reducing the scope of gaming or progress in terms of maximizing revenues from gaming probably can't happen in the political environment we have."