Editorial: St. Louis County should heed council member's call for crackdown on gaming machines

A video gaming machine in Illinois. Unlike Illinois, Missouri doesn't license the machines, but has allowed them to operate unregulated for years.

It is a measure of the deep dysfunction in Missouri’s government that a core responsibility of the state — confronting unlicensed gambling — may have to be done instead by local governments like St. Louis County.

Though a statewide approach would be far more appropriate, county law enforcement should heed County Council member Ernie Trakas’ demand that they do what the state refuses to and start cracking down on clearly illegal gaming machines that have proliferated all over the county, as they have throughout the state. St. Louis city and other local governments should follow suit.

The thousands of machines set up at gas stations, restaurants and other venues throughout Missouri constitute arguably the most brazen criminal enterprise operating in the state today. They operate in the open, without any of the licensing, regulation or payment of gaming taxes that state law requires for gaming operations.

They are undoubtedly pulling business away from the state’s licensed casinos — while paying none of the gaming taxes for education that the casinos pay and facing none of the regulation to ensure the fairness of the games, nor to mitigate gambling addiction, nor to prevent children from playing.

Far from trying to hide what they’re doing, the industry is openly lobbying in Jefferson City for the right to be left alone, state law be damned. They’re even suing the Missouri Highway Patrol for daring to investigate their obvious lawbreaking.

Their specious argument is that these machines don’t actually constitute gambling. As if the patrons who routinely stand around plunking their money into the machines are doing so for “entertainment,” and not because a certain percentage of them will get more money back. Please.

As obvious a violation of state gaming law as this is, the industry has remained effectively untouchable in Jefferson City for years. Occasional attempts in the Legislature to specify that this is illegal have failed. Top state officials such as Gov. Mike Parson and Attorney General Andrew Bailey — who have shown zero hesitation to bigfoot into Missourians’ personal medical decisions, library shelves and more — have refused to lift a finger to confront this clear violation of state law on their watch.

We’ll leave it to readers to decide if that’s because of the steady flow of political donations and other influence that come through people like former Missouri House Speaker Steve Tilley, who now lobbies his former legislative colleagues on behalf of one of the gaming companies, Wildwood-based Torch Electronics.

Trakas, a Republican who represents part of south St. Louis County, sent a letter last week to Thomasina Hassler, chairwoman of the County’s Board of Police Commissioners, saying, essentially, enough is enough.

“Illegal gambling is taking over St. Louis County, victimizing our citizens and visitors with promises of jackpots and financial gain without any oversight by any arm of the State of Missouri or St. Louis County,” wrote Trakas.

Trakas, an attorney, wrote that he had reviewed the statutes and that his legal opinion is that the machines “constitute illegal gambling devices.” Common sense concurs.

Trakas concludes by asking the Commission to direct the county police “to aggressively enforce the applicable statutes and ordinances” against illegal gambling.

Most other local jurisdictions have hesitated to take that approach because of the outrageous absence of any state guidance on the issue.

That’s a reasonable cause for hesitation — but enough is, indeed, enough. It’s time for local governments to start doing what the state should have been doing on this issue for years. If it finally shames the Legislature into action, all the better.

Views from the editorial board, opinions from guest and national columnists plus the latest letters from our readers.

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