Missouri voters rejected a plan Tuesday to rewrite the state constitution to allow riverboat gambling in the struggling resort town of Rockaway Beach.
For many, it was a question of values. Despite a massive campaign blitz from casino supporters, voters said they just didn't feel right about expanding gambling in Missouri.
"I'm morally opposed to gambling," said one voter, Dr. Ray Frederick, 81, of Clayton. "We've got too much of it now, and it doesn't do what it's supposed to do in raising revenue."
Feelings were strong not only about gambling, but also about an amendment to ban gay marriages. The issues, appearing next to each other on the ballot, were the very things that brought many to the polls.
"The propositions were the ones I was most concerned about," said Erica White, 26, a loan processor from St. Louis. "I'm against gambling and same-sex marriage. I know people who have gotten addicted to gambling."
The casino effort lost in virtually every county in the state.
Pro-casino forces who gathered at the town's Beach House Cafe to watch election returns blamed the loss on their opponents' tactics, such as citing crime data from Las Vegas.
"We got barraged by so much misinformation in the last week or so," said Chuck Walters, who owns a marina and is chairman of the Rockaway Beach Gambling Committee.
Currently, riverboat casinos can be built only along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Rockaway Beach, a town of 577 people in southwest Missouri, wanted the constitution changed to allow riverboat casinos on other waterways, specifically the White River.
Supporters pumped $10 million into a media blitz and hired Fleishman-Hillard, a top public relations firm, to promote the casino plan.
The folksy television ads featured the locals of Rockaway Beach, including a brash octogenarian named Virginia Ferguson who quipped, "Believe me, we could use some action around here." The ads beckoned all corners of Missouri to help their neighbors in Rockaway Beach.
But the ad blitz backfired in some camps.
Steve Pappageorge, 45, a St. Louis firefighter, said he was hammered with mail from supporters of the casino. That made him suspicious of big-money interests.
"When I get that much mail on something, I vote the other way," he said after leaving his polling place at Lindenwood Baptist Church in the southwest corner of the city.
Another voter, Sarah Green, 28, of St. Louis, felt overwhelmed by all the advertising. "It was almost too much," she said. "I was a little nauseated."
Rockaway Beach's supporters saw a $100 million casino venture as a way to revitalize the region. The town is nine miles from family-oriented Branson. An anti-amendment group was formed by Peter Herschend, the man behind Silver Dollar City. Late Tuesday, Herschend celebrated the defeat of the casino plan, even though the campaign had split Taney County.
"I think there will be hard feelings, but I pray that we are able to heal the relationships," Herschend said. "This was never a campaign against Rockaway Beach. It was a campaign against the expansion of gambling."
Story
For many, it was a question of values. Despite a massive campaign blitz from casino supporters, voters said they just didn't feel right about expanding gambling in Missouri.
"I'm morally opposed to gambling," said one voter, Dr. Ray Frederick, 81, of Clayton. "We've got too much of it now, and it doesn't do what it's supposed to do in raising revenue."
Feelings were strong not only about gambling, but also about an amendment to ban gay marriages. The issues, appearing next to each other on the ballot, were the very things that brought many to the polls.
"The propositions were the ones I was most concerned about," said Erica White, 26, a loan processor from St. Louis. "I'm against gambling and same-sex marriage. I know people who have gotten addicted to gambling."
The casino effort lost in virtually every county in the state.
Pro-casino forces who gathered at the town's Beach House Cafe to watch election returns blamed the loss on their opponents' tactics, such as citing crime data from Las Vegas.
"We got barraged by so much misinformation in the last week or so," said Chuck Walters, who owns a marina and is chairman of the Rockaway Beach Gambling Committee.
Currently, riverboat casinos can be built only along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Rockaway Beach, a town of 577 people in southwest Missouri, wanted the constitution changed to allow riverboat casinos on other waterways, specifically the White River.
Supporters pumped $10 million into a media blitz and hired Fleishman-Hillard, a top public relations firm, to promote the casino plan.
The folksy television ads featured the locals of Rockaway Beach, including a brash octogenarian named Virginia Ferguson who quipped, "Believe me, we could use some action around here." The ads beckoned all corners of Missouri to help their neighbors in Rockaway Beach.
But the ad blitz backfired in some camps.
Steve Pappageorge, 45, a St. Louis firefighter, said he was hammered with mail from supporters of the casino. That made him suspicious of big-money interests.
"When I get that much mail on something, I vote the other way," he said after leaving his polling place at Lindenwood Baptist Church in the southwest corner of the city.
Another voter, Sarah Green, 28, of St. Louis, felt overwhelmed by all the advertising. "It was almost too much," she said. "I was a little nauseated."
Rockaway Beach's supporters saw a $100 million casino venture as a way to revitalize the region. The town is nine miles from family-oriented Branson. An anti-amendment group was formed by Peter Herschend, the man behind Silver Dollar City. Late Tuesday, Herschend celebrated the defeat of the casino plan, even though the campaign had split Taney County.
"I think there will be hard feelings, but I pray that we are able to heal the relationships," Herschend said. "This was never a campaign against Rockaway Beach. It was a campaign against the expansion of gambling."
Story
