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Report on the Missouri Gaming Commission’s
Feb. 26, 2003 meeting
Time: 9 a.m.
Place: St. Charles City Hall

Agenda & Items of Interest

Consideration of Minutes
    -Dec. 12, 2002 minutes were tabled
    -Jan. 22, 2003 minutes were approved
    -Jan. 29, 2003 minutes were approved

In attendance at the meeting: various individuals from the gambling industry, as well as about 15-20 members of ABC (Against Barnhart Casino). They did not make a presentation, but they were there to observe and show their opposition to a casino in Barnhart.

Consideration of hearing officer recommendations
    -Jarita Hardaway and Steven Brinkman were not granted licenses to work at casinos, based on past criminal activity.

Consideration of Motion for stay of enforcement of commission’s order
    -David Teague was approved for a license in Missouri, despite omitting past criminal background during his initial interviews

Harrah’s Maryland Heights was approved for relicensing in the city
    -city’s mayor touts positive impact of casino, but admits no independent analysis took place
    -“there has been no significant increase in crime because of the casino in Maryland Heights.” –MH police chief

CONSIDERATION OF DISCIPLINARY ACTION!
    -Harrah’s North Kansas City was fined $50,000 for failure to remove faulty software from slot machines. The games could be cheated, and sometimes did not pay jackpots correctly. The casino was given a grace period to remove the software, but failed to do so, and on Jan. 28-29, the commission discovered 76 slot machines still contained the faulty software.
    -Isle of Capri Kansas City was fined $25,000 for failure to remove faulty software from six slot machines.

Update on Missouri’s Problem Gambling Programs
Upcoming initiatives include partnering with Kansas City Port Authority to issue a joint request for proposals for problem gambling research in Missouri, and to further expand Missouri’s outreach programs. They are considering giving Kansas City PA $100,000/year to research problem gambling, through the Kansas City Community Foundation.
    -They aim to have it peer-reviewed, and it won’t be designed to get a pre-determined result.

Missouri’s Underage Gambling Prevention Program
    FY 2001: initial program saw print campaign, mass mailing, speaker’s bureau, traveling education exhibit
    FY 2002: “All Bets Off” in-school, addictions awareness program
    FY 2003: new programs- “Addiction: The Game No One Wins.” And “Beat Addiction: Choose the Right Path.”

Assembly on addictions, including gambling addictions, are tentatively being planned for school assemblies across the state.
    -There will be a “facilitator’s guide” to help counselors/teachers have follow-up talk with students.

National Program Gambling Awareness Week will take place—time to be determined.

Following that, there was a powerpoint presentation on how gambling negatively affects business overall, especially employers. It was presented by Lia Nower, professor at UM-St. Louis I will be seeking to obtain this presentation shortly.