Casino Watch - Current Information On The $500 Loss Limit

Missouri...Can We Talk... is a series of 30-second audio PSA messages meant to arm
listeners with the latest information on gambling in Missouri and attempts by the casino
industry and politicians to expand gambling in this state and remove the $500 loss limit.
To listen to and download these topical and informative audio messages please click here.

The $500 Loss Limit
IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED

4.14.08

Casino Watch Policy Briefs by Joseph Day

Missouri Gaming Commission's Statewide Market Study
Reveals Overwhelming Support for Loss Limit

Letters regarding the $500 Loss Limit

Letter to the Editor:
Mark Andrews, Chairman of Casino Watch "Keep the loss limit"
Attorney General Jay Nixon's letter opposing
the removal of the $500 Loss Limit
Debbie and John's Letters to the Missouri Senate
The Cost of Removing the $500 Loss Limit is Too High
Missouri Catholic Conference To The Missouri Senate
Proposed Repeal of $500 Gambling Loss Limit
Focus on the Family
Christian Life Commission of MO Baptist Convention
Iowa Consumer Credit of Des Moines
Valerie Lorenz, Ph.D of the Compulsive Gambling Center
----"I state with confidence that removing loss
----limits at gambling establishments will lead
----to an increase in compulsive gambling and
----an escalation of the gambling by those
----individuals in the early throes of addiction."
Edward J. Looney, Executive Director
Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey, Inc .
----"To increase the limit from $500 to no limit
----would be disastrous for problem and
----compulsive gamblers and their families."
Robert Goodman, Professor of Environmental Design
Commentary from Casino Watch Chairman, Mark Andrews
Letter to the Editor - St. Louis Business Journal
from Casino Watch Chairman, Mark Andrews

WHY THE GAMBLING ASSAULT ON THE FAMILY
MUST BE STOPPED!

2007 LEGISLATION TO REMOVE THE LOSS LIMIT

"The Missouri Republican party supports the maintenance of Missouri's visionary casino loss limits to protect all citizens from terrorist and other criminal elements, laundering of cash capital used to fund their activities."

Missouri Republican Party Platform, Resolutions

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Editorial 3.5.05

"The governor and the Legislature should stand firm. The original intent of voters - a limited form of legalized gambling - has been eroded almost beyond recognition. Just last August, voters decisively (56 percent to 44 percent) rejected expanding casino gambling to southwest Missouri. . . . The limit should stay in place, if only to remind everyone involved that there's no such thing as free money"

.Definition of the $500 Loss Limit

$500 Loss Limit: Under Missouri Law, casino gamblers can lose up to $500 every two hours. If a gambler loses $500 before the two hours are up, he/she must stop gambling. When the two hour time period has passed, they are free to lose another $500.

Money Laundering: The conversion of money derived from criminal activity to hide its illegal origin. Criminals can spend tens of thousands of dollars of illegal money for chips, gamble a little, trade the chips back in for new, unmarked money.

"Casinos can play a
significant role in money laundering"
Miriam Miquelon, U.S. Attorney,
Southern Illinois

"The absence of loss limits is a major reason St. Louis area drug dealers flock to the Alton Belle and Casino Queen"
Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Holtshouser Eastern District of Missouri in St. Louis.

Source: MIKE FITZGERALD,
Belleville News-Democrat