As reported by: Associated Press
The Missouri Gaming Commission says the state's unique gamblers' loss limit is putting the state's casino industry at a competitive disadvantage.

In its annual report to the Legislature, the government agency that regulates casinos also said the industry could absorb a "modest tax increase" if it were accompanied by other policy changes, such as eliminating the loss limit.

A Missouri law that the Gaming Commission described as one-of-a-kind worldwide prohibits casino patrons from buying more than $500 in slot-machine tokens or table-game chips during each two-hour gambling session.

Casinos have lobbied for the limit's repeal, arguing that it drives high rollers to other states and doesn't help compulsive gamblers. The report by the Missouri Gaming Commission concurred in those results.

"Those who use Missouri casinos find the loss limit a patronizing intrusion by government into a private business transaction," the report said.

Because of the loss limit, the report said, some people are instead gambling in neighboring states such as Illinois or illegally gambling at truck stops and private bingo halls that have installed slot machines.

The report requested that legislators repeal the law requiring the commission to annually report on competitiveness, because "no one has been able to make a cogent argument that the loss limit does not render Missouri casinos less competitive."

But the commission's executive director Kevin Mullally said the report stops short of an explicit recommendation to repeal the loss limit.

"I don't think we're recommending it, we're providing a policy analysis of the loss limit, and that may lead people to believe that it's not been a very effective public policy," Mullally said in an interview Friday. "Sometimes we pass laws to make us feel good, and maybe this is one of those."

Mark Andrews, chairman of the state's anti-gambling lobby Casino Watch, said the Gaming Commission was acting irresponsibly.

"I can understand the casinos saying the loss limit hurts business," Andrews told The Kansas City Star. "But not the Gaming Commission. That's our state government. I find that very troubling."

Democratic Gov. Bob Holden proposed earlier this year to repeal the loss limit as part of a plan to increase taxes on casinos. Both moves would have generated more state funding for education. But legislators rejected Holden's ideas.