Casinos aren’t the only ones pouring money into Missouri to affect the outcome of gambling questions.

As contributions from casinos and gambling groups have exploded in recent years in Missouri and elsewhere, some big opponents also have stepped forward.

“You probably have more being spent by opponents than any other state in the union ... because people in Branson have money,” said David Robertson, former chairman and now a board member of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling and its affiliated organization, the National Coalition Against Gambling Expansion.

Show Me You Care, an anti-gambling task force, spent nearly $1.8 million in 2004 to fight a gambling measure in Missouri, with more than $1.5 million of that coming from Herschend Family Entertainment Corp., Silver Dollar City or Herschend family members, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

The Herschend family, whose holdings include Silver Dollar City and other entertainment outlets, opposed a constitutional amendment in 2004 that would have allowed casinos at locations other than the Mississippi and Missouri rivers — including Rockaway Beach, a community near Branson.

“The issue from our perspective was broader,” said Peter Herschend. “They (casinos) are legal in Missouri only on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and once you open the door, there’s nothing to prevent them from going in anywhere. And the people spoke up, authoritatively, to say Missouri had enough casinos.”

This year, Herschend also is supporting a Senate bill that would remove the limit on how much gamblers can lose in Missouri casinos.

Herschend said he takes no position on loss limits, but supports another provision of Senate Bill 430 that he said is designed to prevent further growth of the casino industry in Missouri.

Herschend said the bill that has the loss-limit provision also contains another provision limiting the number of casino licenses in Missouri to the 13 now in effect.

“That’s the section of the bill that we have worked on,” he said.

He said he doubts a measure to lift the loss limits, or to cap the number of casino licenses, would pass if proposed as a single issue.

“I’m not saying that loss limits are right or wrong, but the gaming commission says the average loss in Missouri is $86 and the casino industry says the state loses a lot of revenue to other states where people can play for higher stakes,” he said. “They can just cross the river or state line and go to Illinois or Iowa, or pay $99 and get on a plane and go to Las Vegas.”

Herschend likened gambling to “a social cancer,” saying it destroys lives.

“That’s why we say the current number of licenses is enough,” he said. “It (the bill) is a combination of two concerns, but that’s what makes it a workable compromise.”

Herschend said his activities on behalf of the bill will involve individual contact with legislators, rather than involvement in an organized campaign.

According to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, a campaign contribution database, the Herschend family or their interests have continued to make political contributions, including nearly $11,000 to legislators in the 2006 election cycle.



Susan Redden writes for The Joplin (Mo.) Globe.