Editorial: Adopt Proposition A

Maybe there’s no such thing as a free lunch, but voters on Nov. 4 can provide more money for schools without paying a dime.

Proposition A would remove the $500 “loss limit” on casino gambling and raise the state casino tax from 20 percent to 21 percent. This additional tax would provide $105 million to $130 million each year to schools for kindergarten through 12th grade.

That would mean about $379,000 a year in new income for Sedalia School District 200. Warsaw would get $119,000, Cole Camp $63,000 and Marshall $219,000. The smaller, rural school districts, such as Green Ridge, Smithton, Tipton and Pilot Grove, would get between $22,000 and $50,000 a year.

Yet a significant number of school administrators and teachers are ambivalent about the initiative because of the way it’s being sold. The proposed legislation is called the Schools First Elementary and Secondary Education Funding Initiative. But it’s really about gambling.

The extra money for education is welcome, but the initiative should be adopted on its merits as sound public policy. What the gambling industry wants is the abolition of the $500 buy-in. Missouri gamblers can buy no more than $500 worth of chips or tokens every two hours. This was intended as a way to curb compulsive gambling when casino gambling was approved by the voters in 1992. It was modeled after restrictions Iowa enacted in 1989 but dropped after Illinois got into the casino business. Missouri is now the only place in the world where casino gambling is legal that has such a restriction.

The loss limit doesn’t work, for various reasons, but a Missouri innovation does. Players can ban themselves from Missouri’s casinos for life. By 2005, 9,000 people had done so. Other states have followed Missouri’s lead.

If the loss limit remains, Missouri casinos can expect to lose around $100 million a year in revenues to the gambling halls opening soon in Kansas. St. Louis casinos lose business to Illinois casinos across the river in Alton and East St. Louis.

The low buy-in keeps “whales,” rich people who play for high stakes, out of Missouri. Getting rid of the loss limit would stimulate casino hotel construction and create jobs.

The proposed law would also cap the number of Missouri casinos at the 13 now operating, which is probably a good idea that even opponents of gambling can embrace.

Proposition A deserves a yes vote Nov. 4.