Subject: Gambling

• St. Louis Post-Dispatch Gets Political With Its Online Advertising

  On the eve of Election Day two weeks ago, some online readers of the Post-Dispatch opened their inboxes to find an intriguing note from the local daily: an e-mail touting Proposition A, the controversial gambling ballot initiative that aimed to do away with the $500 loss limits enforced at the state’s casinos. Only two weeks prior, the Post’s editorial board had given the ballot initiative a big thumbs-down. What gives?

  November 18, 2008

• Alton Confidential: Naked truths about bare-breasted barmaids, horrific murders and the ghosts that haunt our favorite little river town

  December 10, 2008

• Double Down

  October 10, 2007

• Genome: The Secret of How Life Works

  September 26, 2007

• Let’s Revue

  July 25, 2007

• Jackpot

  December 6, 2000

• Hold 'Em Tight

  August 16, 2006

• Bracketology

  Two SLU professors say they’ve solved the world’s most challenging math problem: your office NCAA pool

  March 22, 2006

• Slots with Video Poker (1996)

  Week of December 15, 2005

  December 14, 2005

• Tunnel Vision

  A new casino takes its downtown development plans underground

  November 2, 2005

• Shipping Blues

  Fairmount Park's owner can't squander his prize filly's talent on home turf

  September 15, 2004

• Nags to Riches

  A late push for slot machines in Springfield may be Fairmount Park's silver bullet

  May 12, 2004

• Turkey With Plum Sauce

  Celebrate Thanksgiving the way the Pilgrims did: at a casino with Vietnamese pop stars!

  November 26, 2003

• Best Casino

  Ameristar Casino

  September 24, 2003

• Best Casino

  Ameristar

  September 25, 2002

• Ocean's Eleven, Give or Take

  December 5, 2001

• Best Casino

  September 26, 2001

• Beat the Casinos? Not Yet.

  August 29, 2001

• The Count

  April 25, 2001

• Joker's Wild

  November 1, 2000

• Best Casino

  September 27, 2000

• Unlucky Town

  August 23, 2000

• The Great St. Louis Casino War

  July 5, 2000

• The Albatross

  June 7, 2000

• PRAYING AGAINST THE ODDS

  January 26, 2000

• THIS LAND IS THEIR LAND

  December 8, 1999

• Now That Fairmount Park Is In Line for $7 Million Bailout, Will It Finally Fix Its JumboTron?

  Good news horse-racing fans. Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review an appeal filed by four Chicago-area casinos over a special fund established to help horse racing. The fund, passed into law in 2006, required Illinois' four biggest casinos (all located near Chicago) to set aside part of their profits for two years to aid horse racing. The casinos paid more than $70 million into the fund, but the money has not been distributed pending legal appeals. Now that the Supreme Court has r

  June 9, 2009

• Gretchen Wilson

  July 22, 2009

• A Sprawling Casino Next To A Conservation Area?

  photo by Keegan HamiltonThe Columbia Bottom Conservation AreaLocated at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers just north of St. Louis, the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area is among the last stretches of undeveloped riverfront near the city. The Missouri Department of Conservation, the state agency that manages the 4,300-acre area, describes the land as "a mosaic of bottomland habitats that includes shallow wetlands, bottomland hardwoods, prairie, and cropland. These habitats att

  July 28, 2009

• Smoking Ban Opponents Launch Advertising Campaign -- On Christian Radio?

  keepstlouisfree.blogspot.com​Keep St. Louis Free, a group opposed to local smoking-ban efforts, launched this week an advertising campaign to try to block such a ban from going up for public vote in St. Louis County. Bill Hannegan -- spokesman and founder of Keep St. Louis Free -- mentioned the advertisement in a comment to a blog post I wrote last Friday.Hannegan mentioned that the ad may eventually run on KMOX (1120 AM). For now, though, the ad (available for your listening pleasure here) is

  July 28, 2009

• Smoking-Ban Bill Smolders in County Council

  flickr.com/photos/epzibah​A bill that would allow residents of St. Louis County to vote on an indoor smoking ban, was again debated at a County Council meeting last night but did not move any closer to a vote. Action was delayed after council members and the public did not receive copies of the proposed legislation until after last night's meeting already began. Clouding the issue even more is that the bill now contains two separate provisions. One would exempt from the ban casinos and bars th

  July 29, 2009

• If President Casino Craps Out, What Happens to Its Gaming License?

  photobucket.com/albums/u271/ginger_jedi​Last year Missouri voters narrowly approved Proposition A. The ballot initiative repealed loss limits for the state's gamblers, taxed casinos for the benefit of schools, and capped the number of gaming licenses issued by the state at 13. Not only did the loss limit measure turn out to be a boon for St. Louis' casinos (an Illinois smoking ban didn't hurt either), it made the gaming licenses into a commodity infinitely more precious than a pile of pok

  July 29, 2009

• The Future of Fairmount Park Looks Like a Long Shot These Days

  Photo: Chad GarrisonOpening Day at Fairmount Park this past April​It's been a rough summer for Fairmount Park, the venerable and decrepit horse track in Illinois. The windfall it expected to receive this summer from a tax on casinos is tied up in appeal. And it's looking as though the track will never get slot machines, especially after Illinois Governor Pat Quinn last month legalized one-armed bandits in bars and restaurants but not horse tracks. (The tracks have argued they need the gambling

  August 3, 2009

• Joe's trolley, the suffering of the Jews and a casino on bottomland

  August 5, 2009

• Danny Glover Brings Lethal Weapon -- His Mouth -- to Aid of Casino Workers

  ​Actor Danny Glover was in town yesterday in a show of support for union employees of the Lumiere Place and President casinos. The Lethal Weapon co-star spoke at an event on Laclede's Landing where he warned that the "diplomatic immunity" of the casinos' owner, Pinnacle Entertainment, had "just been revoked."Okay, not really. The rather diplomatic Glover instead seized the podium to politely ask that Pinnacle act in good faith with the union -- Workers United Local 74. You can read the full st

  August 10, 2009

• Feds Let Online Gamblers Lay Claim to BETonSPORTS' Founder Gary Kaplan's $43 Million, Beginning Today

  ​Gary Kaplan, founder of the now-defunct online gambling business BETonSPORTS, delivered a big win to the U.S. Department of Justice last week when he pleaded guilty to racketeering and fraud. Part of the plea-bargain included Kaplan's forfeiture of more than $43.65 million in proceeds he acquired from running the billion-dollar betting operation in Costa Rica.The feds have wasted no time in making available that $43.65 million to bettors and others who spent money with BETonSPORTS and Kaplan.

  August 18, 2009

• Latest Hole In County Smoking Ban: Bar Owners Would Follow Honor System

  "We qualify for exemption from the ban -- Scout's honor." ​The bill that could go before voters banning smoking in some St. Louis County establishments would rely on the word of bar owners to determine whether or not their tavern should be excluded from the ban. As the bill currently reads, casinos and bars that generate 75 percent or more of their sales from alcohol would be excluded from the ban. But the county does not plan to check the sales receipts from bars and taverns to make sure they

  August 19, 2009

• St. Louis' Notoriously Smoky Bars May Soon Display Health Warnings

  ​Aldermen in St. Louis are considering mandatory warning labels for city bars that continue to allow smoking indoors. The signs would be posted prominently inside the establishments and state: "Warning: Smoking Allowed Here." (St. Louis is one of the minority of U.S. cities without a smoking ban.) The idea for the signs was hashed out yesterday in a committee meeting in which the city's Board of Aldermen is considering a smoking-ban bill first introduced last May. Passage of the controversial

  October 8, 2009

• Latest Panacea for Fairmount Park: Internet Gambling

  ​After trying for years to get slot machines at tracks, the Illinois horse-racing community is hoping the next-best thing will help the troubled industry. Yesterday the Illinois Racing Board legalized online gambling for horse racing. As the Belleville News-Democrat reports this morning, the racing board approved three online companies to handle the bets for the state's five race tracks. The company TVG (www.tvg.com) has partnered with Fairmount Park. A portion of all horse bets plac

  October 14, 2009

• Smoking Ban Opponents Organize; Remind Public to Vote No on Prop. N

  Photo: Chad GarrisonCitizen's Against Prop. N: Rev. Harold Hendrick, Fred Teutenberg, Scott Simon, Jon Rand, Bill Hannegan​A somewhat unlikely group of bar owners, bowling advocates, tobacco salesman and -- yes -- a Christian radio host, gathered today in University City to announce their opposition to a smoking ban proposal for St. Louis County.The group, calling itself "Citizens Against Proposition N", held a press conference pointing out perceived injustices to the November 3 ballot proposa

  October 14, 2009

• St. Louis Board of Aldermen Passes Smoking Ban

  The St. Louis Board of Aldermen ended a three-and-a-half hour debate this afternoon and approved 20-7 a bill to ban smoking in most bars and restaurants in St. Louis. The amended bill excludes casinos and bars smaller than 2,000 square feet in size. Those voting against that ban were: Ken Ortmann - Ward 9Fred Wessels - Ward 13Stephen Gregali - Ward 14Frank Williamson - Ward 26Samuel Moore - Ward 4Bill Waterhouse - Ward 24Matt Villa - Ward 11More details to come later...

  October 23, 2009

• Highlights of Today's Epic Smoking Ban Debate at St. Louis City Hall

  Today's meeting was a lesson in how sausage -- and cigarettes -- are made.​As mentioned on this here blog earlier today, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen approved by a 20-7 vote a bill that would prohibit smoking in most bars and restaurants should voters in St. Louis County also approve a smoking ban on November 3. The nearly-four-hour debate inside the board chambers was one of the longest in memory with aldermen attempting to attach no less than five separate amendments to the bill. Doing t

  October 23, 2009

• Councilman's Inability to Say No to Casinos, Angers Casino Chief

  www.stevestenger.com​By now you've probably heard how St. Louis County Councilman Steve Stenger was flabbergasted Tuesday when a casino executive "muscled" him prior to a council meeting. As Stenger told the Post-Dispatch yesterday, the chairman and chief executive of Pinnacle Entertainment, Daniel Lee, and his entourage cornered Stenger (D-Affton) on Tuesday night just before the council was set to vote on a controversial casino proposal for north county. The Las Vegas-based Pinnacle is finis

  November 5, 2009