Citizens mobilize to stop casino in Jefferson City

JEFFERSON CITY—Voters will go to the polls April 8 in Jefferson City to consider two ballot propositions that are meant to pave the way for a riverboat casino that could locate near the State Capitol on the Missouri River.

The Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) is one of several entities working against the gambling industry’s attempt to spread into Missouri’s capital city. Several churches are partnering with Citizens Supporting Integrity
(C.S.I.) to motivate and educate potential voters. C.S.I. is the Jefferson City-based grassroots organization that has been leading the fight to defeat the twin propositions.

Doyle Sager, pastor of First Baptist Church, Jefferson City, is one of several leaders involved in a broad-based coalition effort to turn out “No-No” voters. He has moral objections to the two-pronged initiative, which was placed before the citizenry on a 6-4 vote by the city council Jan. 7.

“It preys on people who can least afford it,” Sager said. “Scripture tells us to protect the poor and minister to the vulnerable in our society. I personally think it’s wrong for government to change roles from protector to predator.”

Proposition B would amend the city charter to repeal prohibition of casino type gambling and riverboat gambling. Proposition C would allow the licensing of excursion gambling boats or floating facilities in accordance with Missouri gaming law.

Approving both propositions would take Jefferson City back to the political environment of 1992, when voters legalized riverboat casinos in the city. That climate was changed in 1995 when voters decided to ban the casinos. It is the goal of C.S.I. in 2008 to demonstrate that the will of the voters 13 years ago has not changed.

Some of the ideas being advanced by C.S.I. are pride in downtown buildings and the incongruence of a pulsating, neon type of nightlife that would be created in the downtown area by the presence of a casino.

Visitors to the www.csijeffcity.com website will learn that a casino in Jefferson City would impair economic growth, erode the proper role of government, and destroy the unique culture of the city.

Gambling corrupts, disrupts and destroys

Public resistance to tax increases, the political power of gambling interests, and the growing pursuit of easy money have led to the legalization of some form of gambling all across the United States. An enormous increase in the amount of money Americans are betting has accompanied the wildfire growth of gambling in America. In 1982, Americans bet $125.7 billion on all forms of legal gambling in the U.S. and lost $10.4 billion. In 1998, the amount Americans bet rose to $677.4 billion and the amount they lost exceeded $54.3 billion. It is time to take a closer look at this issue and to develop a response.

It is time for Christians to exercise their influence by refusing to participate in any form of gambling or its promotion.” In addition, the resolution urges “political leaders to enact laws restricting and eventually eliminating all forms of gambling and its advertisement.

While the advocates of legalized gambling promote it as an economic development tool and as a supposedly painless source of tax revenue, there are numerous biblical, ethical, and social reasons why gambling is not an acceptable activity. Following are some of the most obvious reasons.

While the Bible contains no “thou shalt not” in regard to gambling, it does contain many insights and principles which indicate that gambling is wrong. For example, the Bible emphasizes the sovereignty of God over human events (Matt. 10:29-30); whereas gambling looks to chance and luck. The Bible indicates that man is to work creatively and use his possessions for the good of others (Eph. 4:28); gambling fosters a something-for-nothing attitude. The Bible calls for careful stewardship; gambling calls for reckless abandon. The Bible condemns covetousness and materialism (Matt. 6:24-34); gambling has both at its heart. The moral thrust of the Bible is love for God and neighbor (Matt. 22:37-40); gambling seeks personal gain and pleasure at another person’s loss and pain.

The growth of crime in those states and cities that legalize gambling is easily demonstrated. The most comprehensive study to date concludes that after three or four years, counties with casino gambling experience increases in rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and auto theft compared to counties without casinos. Because of their contribution to gambling addiction, lotteries cause increases in crime as well.

Many careful studies on gambling point out frequent incidents of corruption related to gambling. Police are the most immediate targets for corrupting influences. Since police operate at the entry point of the criminal justice system, they are both more available and more desirable as targets of gamblers seeking to make payoffs and bribes. But gambling corruption is by no means limited to the police. Elected officials, as well as individuals in the gambling business, are also subject to the corrupting influence of gambling.

Organized crime benefits from the expansion of gambling as well. William Webster, a former FBI director, said, “I really don’t see how one can expect to run legalized gambling anywhere without serious problems . … Anytime organized crime sees an opportunity to put a fix on something, to get an edge on something, it’ll be there. And gambling is still the largest source of revenue for organized crime.”

Until recently, business and labor leaders have led many of the successful efforts to prevent gambling from entering states and communities because they realized that gambling is bad for the economy and especially bad for relatively low income laborers. Unfortunately, many current business and labor leaders have become either neutral or supportive of gambling because of its alleged economic benefits. However, increased gambling always results in increases in unpaid bills, embezzlement, bankruptcy, and absenteeism from jobs. In addition, gambling does not help a state’s economy in any appreciable way. A lottery returns to the state an average of only about 32 cents of every dollar taken in. The remainder goes to prizes and administration. In only three or four states does the revenue from lotteries, casinos, pari-mutuel betting, and any other existing forms of gambling contribute more than 3 percent to a state’s total budget. The minimal contribution that gambling makes to a state’s economy is more than offset by the social and personal problems it creates.

Gambling corrupts and hurts people in many ways. The something-for-nothing craving which gambling stimulates undermines character. The hope of winning a fortune causes some to embezzle and steal for a gambling stake. Gambling appeals to the weakness of a person’s character and develops recklessness, callousness, and covetousness. Some gamblers become psychologically addicted to gambling so that they cannot stop gambling and find themselves in a headlong plunge into personal catastrophe.

Gambling harms not only those directly involved in gambling but innocent people as well. Especially vulnerable are members of the gambler’s family. Gambling creates financial problems and special tensions in the home. It is difficult to determine whether the gambler or his or her spouse is more physically, mentally and emotionally damaged by the ravages of a gambling binge. The children of gamblers suffer when a gambling parent loses the money for such necessities as food, rent, clothing and medicine. They suffer when a gambling parent abandons them in cars, with neighbors, or in gambling daycare centers while they satisfy their gambling addiction. Communities are hurt by the presence of gambling as increasing numbers of people become addicted to gambling and prey on their communities to support their gambling addictions.

Among the arguments advanced to justify gambling is the one which says that all of life is a gamble or a risk. But risk-taking in gambling is different from the risks involved in the normal routine of life. The risks in gambling are artificially created. In other ventures, the risk is part of the creative process. For example, the contractor risks labor and capital to build a house and make a profit. Unlike the gambler, he assumes a risk that is necessary to society’s economic life, and he relies on more than chance in seeking to make a profit.

It is also argued that some people like to spend their recreation money betting on horses or playing slot machines, just as others prefer to spend theirs for a round of golf or a movie. Gambling obviously provides a kind of recreational excitement for some, but the cost to individuals, families, the economy and society is too high to justify it.

Seen in this light, gambling is personally selfish, morally irresponsible, and socially destructive. Therefore, gambling must be vigorously resisted. Such resistance requires an understanding of the problem, a workable plan of attack, and a personal commitment to work against gambling.

The gambling problem results from two interrelated factors: (1) Many people have a desire, often a compulsion, to gamble. (2) Most of these people have access to gambling opportunities. The ultimate goal of a plan of action is to control the desire to gamble and eliminate the access to gambling opportunities.

When the desire to get something for nothing and the opportunity to gamble go hand in hand, resistance to one requires resistance to the other. To attempt to eliminate the desire without abolishing the opportunity is to invite failure. It is a matter of record that as gambling becomes more accessible, more people gamble. Thus, legalization is not the answer to the gambling problem. Instead, it is one primary cause of the gambling problem.

Any adequate plan to deal with gambling must be both extensive and comprehensive. It must be extensive enough to include the spiritual, educational and legal approaches. It must be comprehensive enough to incorporate the family, the world of work, community clubs and organizations, the church and government.

A vibrant, growing relationship with Jesus Christ is the only adequate basis for a stable personal life and a sound society. Members of Gamblers Anonymous acknowledge that in order to prevent relapse it is necessary to experience certain personality changes within themselves, and that this involves response to spiritual principles in order to make the changes permanent.

Moral arguments, economic self-interest, guilt, shame, and other lesser motivations will not prevail against the gambling urge or solve society’s gambling problem. (This information was provided by the Ethics & Religious Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.)

C.S.I. chairman aims to protect businesses

JEFFERSON CITY—Proponents of casino gambling say it will encourage economic development in Jefferson City. Clyde Lear doesn’t believe them. He said the casino industry has misrepresented its intentions before.

Lear serves as chairman of Citizens Supporting Integrity (C.S.I.), a group that has formed to defeat two casino gambling proposals on Jefferson City’s April 8 ballot. He said he was in favor of riverboat gambling when it was first proposed 20 years ago.

“I envisioned my wife and I getting on the boat and riding up to Hermann,” he said. “It was sold as an opportunity to ride the river and see it all. When the truth came out, that wasn’t the way it was at all. It [the boat] was to be bound to concrete ponds at the side of the river.”

A native of Jefferson City, Lear is founder and chairman of the board of Learfield Communications. As a businessman, he is concerned about the negative effects casino gambling would have on his employees and on the city’s economic development efforts in general.

Casino gambling is being offered as a means of attracting meetings and conventions to the city, but Lear provides a reality check: “If you’re a meeting planner, the last thing you want is a diversion to take your people away from the meeting.”

He talks instead of the work being done by men and women of the Jefferson City Chamber of Commerce who have worked diligently to bring good industries to the community. “We started about five years ago, trying to build good reasons for corporations to come here.”

Because of those efforts, Lear said, Jefferson City residents can expect some major announcements about economic development in the near future. However, he doesn’t include casino gambling in the mix.

“A casino would ruin all the work that we’ve given to this over the last few years. There would be some new jobs established [at a casino], but not the kind of jobs that are really good for our community.

“The picture being painted is not what Jefferson City will get. It’s just a lie. We need to be very careful.”

C.S.I.’s website, www.csijeffcity.com, addresses the question of economic development and offers findings and statistics regarding gambling’s impact on the business community. These include such negative implications as:

• Discretionary spending diverted from existing local businesses to casinos, which are usually owned by out-of-town operators;

• Low-paying jobs, with high dependence on tips;

• Diminished revenues for established restaurants, hotels and other local businesses;

• Increase in businesses such as pawn shops, pay-day loans, mental health counseling, bankruptcy law firms, credit counseling and gamblers anonymous chapters;

• Employee theft and embezzlement to finance gambling debts.

Lear, as an employer, is concerned about all of those matters if the gambling issues are approved. His greatest concern, however, is that those who oppose casino gambling will not take the time to vote.

He is fearful that people will expect the propositions to be defeated and will not make every effort to get to the polls.

“Everybody needs to vote,” he said.

 On April 8, do as Jesus said, be “salt, light” to the world and reject proposed casino

“Without Christian culture and Christian hope, the modern world would come to resemble a half-derelict fun-fair, gone nasty and poverty-racked, one enormous Atlantic City.”

Christians throughout Jefferson City will have an opportunity April 8 to exercise their citizen-rights and vote on Propositions B and C. Passage of both propositions will likely lead to a floating casino on the Missouri River here. The destructiveness of gambling is detailed in this special edition and I pray that you will carefully read and consider all that is offered.

Christians are citizens of two realms – earthly and spiritual. We have rights and responsibilities in both spheres. As citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20), Christians are commanded to obey Jesus (Ex. 20:1-5). Christ’s instructions to “render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s (Lk. 20:25) means giving ultimate allegiance only to God. Yes, we must pay our taxes, but it also means much more.

Christians have the same civic duties all citizens have: to serve on juries, to support candidates for public office and to vote. We are also commanded by God’s Word to pray for – and submit to the authority of – our government and its leaders. Christians are to bring God’s standards of righteousness and justice to bear on the kingdoms of this world. It has been said that Christian political involvement has the potential to move the political system away from … the brokering of the self-interest of powerful persons and groups into a renewed concern for the public interest. Let it be so.

Christians are obligated to bring transcendent moral values into the public policy arena. This is vital, because all law implicitly involves morality. It has been said “you cannot legislate morality.” This is a myth. Morality is legislated every day through the views of one group or another. The question is not whether we will legislate morality, but whose morality we will legislate.

There are many passages in Scripture detailing the Christian’s obligation when it comes to our relationship with the government and public policy. Romans 13:1-7 says government is decreed by God, resistance to government is resistance to an institution of God, rebellion will be punished, the purpose of government is to restrain evil and promote good, and rulers have been empowered to inflict the severest punishment. Christians are to be good citizens, living peaceably and participating fully in shaping public policy, whether it is by serving in government or by voting.

Jesus, in Matthew 5:13-14, describes what our role in shaping public policy should be: “You are the salt of the earth … the light of the world.” Jesus’ use of “salt and light” as metaphors describing the nature of our influence is on target. As “salt” we have been sent into a world that is in moral decay. In Jesus’ day, “salt” was a preservative, working to stave off decay and to preserve what is good. As the “salt” of our culture and society, our call by Christ is to combat the corrupting effects of sin (like gambling) and to preserve as much as we can of what is good, beautiful and true. But “salt” can only preserve that with which it comes into contact, necessitating our engagement/participation in the political process. As the “light” of our culture we want to dispel the darkness of unbelief that affects every area of life and replace it with the goodness, wisdom and truth of God. If we are to truly be “salt and light,” then we must bring the truth of God’s Word to bear on every area of society by every means available to us.

On April 8, let’s be “salt” and let our “light” shine on the dark world of gambling. Let’s be obedient to our Master and be a good citizen as the Apostle Paul encourages us to be. Vote “no” on Propositions B and C – to the glory of God.

Signs of pathological gambling:

• Gambled longer than planned

• Gambled until last dollar was gone

• Lost sleep because of thoughts of gambling

• Used income or savings to gamble, leaving bills unpaid

• Made repeated, unsuccessful attempts to stop gambling

• Broke law or considered breaking law to finance gambling

• Borrowed money to finance gambling

• Felt depressed or suicidal because of gambling losses

• Been remorseful after gambling

• Gambled to get money to meet financial obligations

Casino would greatly harm Capitol culture

JEFFERSON CITY—Kerry Messer, founder of Missouri Family Network and longtime lobbyist at the State Capitol, said Missourians would be in danger of losing something good in the halls of power if two propositions favoring the placement of a riverboat casino are passed by Jefferson City voters on April 8.

Messer, who represents the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) with the Christian Life Commission (CLC), has spent nearly a quarter of a century investing in the spiritual lives of the state representatives and state senators. Often he is blessed to have heart-to-heart talks with them at night when the legislative activity dies down. Putting a gambling facility near his ministry station would quickly create a flashy, seductive lure that would gradually lead to the ruin of many, he said.

“I believe casinos breed a corrupting influence in a closed community,” he said. “When you bring this type of predatory economics to a community, casinos attract other undesirable activities. You have all the different dynamics that go with a vice industry.”

Messer is concerned about the casino taking advantage of lonely, overworked lawmakers who may be tired late at night and ready to unwind by playing some easily accessible games of chance.

“Jefferson City is the one place in the state where hundreds of people come every week and spend the week separated from their spouses and their families,” he explained. “It’s a clean, wholesome community, unlike many state capitals around the nation that are just literally a stone’s throw from adult entertainments, a stone’s throw from all types of unsavory things. Jefferson City does not have that type of an environment.

A casino in the state capital also would be “used as a lobbying tool for a variety of unsavory initiatives,” Messer said.

“Everybody who is on the left side of the political scale is going to be tempted to throw profit toward that casino in an effort to wine and dine and impress lawmakers,” he said. “As a result, lawmakers who are looking for something to eat, looking for something to do, just responding to an invitation because it wouldn’t look good if they were the only legislator from their area not to attend a particular event … there’ll be a lot of pressure on every legislator to come to that venue for dinners and different things.

“That will have an eroding effect on lawmakers’ opinion of casinos because they will be insulated from ever seeing the negative side when they walk into that facility.”

Defeating the two casino-friendly items on the ballot should not be taken lightly.

“I’ve been involved in Missouri politics for some 25 years, and I have seen over and over and over and over again political upsets where people weren’t expecting a vote to turn out the way it does,” Messer said. “As a result, folks on one side of the debate didn’t show up at the polls because they were too overconfident. The last thing we need is overconfidence de-motivating people to come to the polls on April 8.

“We have to encourage people—your neighbors, your family, your friends, your co-workers, your fellow churchmen—to beat the bushes to get every registered voter who’s concerned about the quality of life in Jefferson City to get to the polls on April 8 despite whatever the weather may be on that day.”

CLC Chairman Phil Gloyer, a layman from Forest Park Baptist Church in Joplin, would like to see the CLC continue operating as it has been operating in the State Capitol with a favorable spiritual climate.

“This is a critical vote, not just for the residents of Jefferson City but for the whole state,” Gloyer said. “If Jefferson City votes to allow a casino, it will not only hurt the city by increasing crime, sapping the strength of the local economy, and destroying families, but would be used by the gambling industry as a lobbying tool for the expansion of gambling across the state.”