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Maryland Voters to Decide on Casino Fate in November

Posted on September 28th, 2010

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Iowa voters will not only get to decide their state leaders; Come November 2, they will also get to have their say on a number of important issues on the flip side of their ballots. More than twelve counties in Iowa will also take the elections as an opportunity to assess public opinion on the operation of casinos in their area. Operators of gambling facilities in Clinton and Scott counties are fully confident that voters will let them continue with their business. No county has opted to vote out gambling since the state allowed riverboat facilities to conduct their businesses close to twenty years ago in 1991. Opponents, who are still holding on to their advocacy despite the seemingly popular support for the casinos, claim that the casino industry may just get another free pass because the residents of the state have grown apathetic towards the issue and that an organized front for the opposition has not been formed at all. In 1994, legislation of the state has required that the issue of gaming be decided by voters through a referendum every eight years.

The voters of Scott County in 2002, overwhelmingly gave a 73 percent support to extended gambling, while the opposition could only muster 27 percent of the vote. The spokeswoman for Isle of Capri Casino, which operates the two casinos in Scott County, Jill Haynes, opines, “There is somewhat a comfort level knowing it has passed multiple times. But it’s an election, and we respect the citizens’ right to vote. But everything we’re hearing is positive.” Isle and other casino companies, despite the confident stance they have been adapting, has still been campaigning to make sure they keep their business by running advertising campaigns all through the state. Moreover, the companies will also have a number of nonprofit groups that hold their licenses for them to conduct education campaigns to voters so that their odds of being approved will increase.

The president of the Riverboat Development Authority based in Davenport, Mary ellen Chamberlin, indicated that polling shows a strong support for the casinos that spans through all the regions of the state. She adds, “They are within range of the last referendum. And our polling is about the same across all demographic groups, ages, gender and political affiliation.” Chamberlin said that with the support also come a few issues, one of which is the retention of judges that were in favor of casino operations. Another issue is the search of the city of Davenport’ for an operator to take over the license that Isle of Capri will be giving up for its Rhythm City Casino. Lastly, there is the concern on what will happen should the Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats wins. Plaats, aside from heading an effort to unseat three justices of the Iowa Supreme Court, is also an opponent of gambling. Chamberlin claims that she has no data on how much support Plaats has in Scott County whether these supporters will also be against the measure regarding gambling.

As for a new operator for Rhythm City, she commented, “I don’t think voters should take this as a referendum on any operator or any community. It should be a referendum on whether we want gaming in Scott County or not. No operator can be here at all if we can’t have gaming.” The director of Consumer Credit of Des Moines, Tom Coates, admits that his cause, the cause of opponents of casinos, may be very discouraging to a point that it may feel like it is a lost cause. He adds, “People like myself, and many others that see the problems of gambling, are just so discouraged. Paid lobbyists swarm over legislators like locusts. I think they’ve kind of beat down the opposition. It’s so entrenched and so tied into both political parties that there’s not much that can be done.” He also adds that the case of local governments benefiting largely from gambling profits is not really the case.