What is "boat-in-moat"?
..."bait and switch"!
1994 Missouri gambling election
promises to legalize slot machines.

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT NO. 6 said: "Shall the General Assembly be authorized to permit only upon the Mississippi River and the Missouri River, lotteries, gift enterprises, and games of chance to be conducted on excursion gambling boats and floating facilities?"

TV AD TO LEGALIZE GAMES OF CHANCE: "Amendment 6 continues to restrict gaming in Missouri to riverboats only. But by simply allowing additional games to be played on our riverboats, amendment 6 will increase revenue to the state." Another Amendment 6 ad by "Vote Yes" says, "FACT: Amendment 6 continues to restrict gaming to riverboats only - and only on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers."

1995 BOATS STOP CRUISING! ("BAIT AND SWITCH")

1996 The Gaming Commission approved the "boat-in-moat" in Maryland Heights. A LAND BASED CASINO!  ("BAIT AND SWITCH")
As construction began, Akin vs. Missouri Gaming Commission challenged the constitutionality of "boats-in-moats."

1997 Missouri Supreme Court Opinion Summary, 11/25/97 Chief Justice Duane Benton: "By approving the 1994 constitutional amendment, the people intended that games of chance be conducted on facilities that are solely over and in contact with the surface of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Land based casino gambling remains unconstitutional under article 39(9) of the Missouri Constitution."

Senator Eagleton, as the Gambling Industry's attorney, admitted, "All but three of the 16 currently licensed casino venues are, or soon will be, operating in artificial spaces that (the Supreme Court's decision) would prohibit. Twelve of these venues would be immediately affected." These venues are: St. Joseph Frontier, Harrah's K.C.*, Station Casino St. Charles*, Players & Harrah's Maryland Hts.*, Kansas City Station*, Kansas City Flamingo Hilton.                                  * 2 casinos in each location

1998 The Gaming Commission is given the task of regulating the Gambling Industry. Despite the Gambling Industry's own admission that their casinos are operating in violation of the state Constitution and were subject to being shut down immediately (the Gambling Industry's own characterization), the Gaming Commission has not shut down one slot machine. Unbelievably, the Gaming Commission has acted in even greater defiance of the Supreme Court by licensing and relicensing casinos which the casinos have admitted to be in violation of the Supreme Court's decision.

The casinos that are operating illegal slots have been trying to manipulate our courts in an effort to avoid being shut down. On May 28, about a week after hearing the casinos' objections, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the Gaming Commission may shut down casinos operating illegal facilities. This ruling set in motion a statewide referendum which will be on the ballot November 3 to legalize slot machines on "LAND BASED CASINOS."

1999 A faction of Valley Park residents is studying a proposal to annex the former Muni and build the area's first "sin and win" casino and adult cabaret on the Meramec River.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch 5/19/98
CASINOS WROTE THE LAW!
CASINOS BROKE THE LAW!
WAS THE "BAIT and SWITCH" DELIBERATE?
Nancy Todd, gambling campaign strategist, published in a 1994 trade journal - reported in THE LUCK BUSINESS, by Robert Goodman:

"Gambling can be limited to one or more metropolitan areas, rivers, lakes, bays or oceans." "A good rule of thumb is to look at it as a ladder. Areas that have no gambling at all warm up to the 'cruise to nowhere' as the first rung on the ladder. The next step would be dockside. At the top of the ladder would be land based casinos."

Classic "bait and switch"!!!