Group that put gambling on ballot to campaign against Cape casino
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
By Rudi Keller ~ Southeast Missourian
After successfully petitioning to force a vote on gambling, Quality of
Life in Cape Girardeau will reinvent itself this week as a campaign
committee to persuade voters to reject a casino, spokesman Doug Austin
said Monday.
The core leaders of the group will meet today to discuss how to
structure the campaign and what resources are needed, Austin said. The
leaders will then address the Cape Girardeau City Council before
meeting with what Austin said were 91 volunteers who helped gather the
signatures needed to put gambling on the ballot Nov. 2.
Cape Girardeau is one of four communities vying for the lone
casino license available in Missouri. A favorable vote Nov. 2 will keep
Cape Girardeau in the competition. A vote rejecting gambling would
abort Cape Girardeau's bid.
The campaign to reject gambling will not be built on horror
stories of people addicted to gambling or predictions that the city
will become a breeding ground for crime if a casino opens here, Austin
said. Instead, he said the committee will focus on the economic
questions of whether money spent at a casino would be spent in Cape
Girardeau anyway.
"The one thing this committee will stand for is truth and fairness," Austin said.
The other point the committee will make is that every dollar in
local taxes paid by the casino comes at the price of someone losing
money while gambling, Austin said.
"In my opinion, this is built on losing," he said. "I do not
see the success of our city and the future generations of our city
being built on the foundation of people losing money. I don't want to
predicate my success on your failure."
Two companies, Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. and St. Louis Capital
Partners LLC, have pitched casino ideas to the city council and seem
sure to file license applications by Missouri Gaming Commission's
Sept. 1 deadline. Isle of Capri has released the most information about
its plans, which include room for 1,200 people to play slot machines
and table games, restaurants, a bar and a 750-seat conference and
entertainment venue.
Isle of Capri expects to hire up to 450 people to take care of an estimated 1 million casino visitors per year.
A study of casino opportunities by Ameristar Casinos, a company
that is not competing for the license, showed that Cape Girardeau has
the biggest potential for new revenue for the state, with up to $2.6
million also being generated for city coffers.
David Knight, owner of Ole Hickory Pits and a partner in the
property where Isle of Capri would like to build, said Austin is wrong
about the impact of a casino on the community. "I think it is
disingenuous to say that there are only so many dollars and that
anything that happens will take from one group of people and give to
another," Knight said. "It ignores the fact of 1 million visitors a
year, it ignores 450 jobs and it ignores the tremendous tax revenue."
While Austin and casino opponents are organizing, no similar moves by casino supporters have begun, Knight said.
Under state law, committees intending to spend money to
influence the Nov. 2 election must submit organization papers by Oct.
3. The committees may file organizational papers with the Missouri
Ethics Commission or, since the campaign is all within Cape Girardeau
County, with County Clerk Kara Clark Summers.
