Unfettered Letters

Smaller prizes but more winners?

I saw a billboard the other day proclaiming the Powerball lottery was at $100 million. I have never purchased a lottery ticket and never will, as the odds of winning are astronomical.

Why not increase the odds so that instead of one person winning $100 million (why the heck would one person require $100 million to make life more comfortable?) 400 people would win $250,000 dollars? I could be pretty comfortable with that amount.

Would I purchase a ticket or two? You betcha.

Ralph Hartner
Merriam

Keep Powerball American

Very sorry to say, but if Powerball gets married up with other countries (2/10, Business, “In search of big jackpots”), I will no longer play. I personally feel that we have outsourced our lives away, and this is just another example.

It is hard enough to win as it is. I have to compete with other countries for jobs and speak to people I can hardly understand on the phone. I am not about to compete in fun.

I am starting to question my ability to live like an American.

Tracy Cavanaugh
Blue Springs

Casino law costs Kansas jobs

Rick Alm really nailed it in his article on the flawed Kansas casino law (12/9, Business, “Kansas’ casino law should be tossed”). How stupid can the lawmakers be not to allow slots at the Woodlands and put 500 people to work, plus the revenue that the state would receive?

Our Kansas lawmakers sit around crying about the budget shortage but refuse to put people to work and generate revenue from the track. These so-called lawmakers should go up to Council Bluffs to the dog track and see how many people from Kansas City are there.

Get your heads out of the sand, Kansas lawmakers, and generate some revenue for the state, or start looking for another soft job you can screw up if you’re still in office after the next election.

Ralph Swanson
Independence

Prop A would benefit Missouri

I’m voting yes on Proposition A to protect the jobs and economic benefits casinos bring to Missouri — and to my own small business.

My work with Missouri casinos has helped me grow Controlled Environmental Products from a 3,000-square-foot space into a 30,400-square-foot warehouse distribution center. We began with one contract 10 years ago, and now we work with casinos regionally and nationally.

Missouri casinos spend $250 million a year with local, minority-owned and female-owned companies like mine. At business fairs sponsored by the casinos, I’ve seen firsthand how they reach out to local businesses.

Harrah’s Kansas City spends more than 29 percent of its budget on minority-owned and women-owned vendors. When Pinnacle built Lumiere Place in downtown St. Louis, 28 percent of the construction budget went to minority-owned firms.

We need Proposition A so Missouri can finally compete for casino visitors on a level playing field with other states, including Kansas.

Best of all, Proposition A will generate more than $100 million for Missouri schools. I urge all Missourians to vote yes on Proposition A.

Marilyn Townsend
President, Controlled Environmental Products
Kansas City

Dislike gambling? Vote yes on A

If you dislike gambling, you should vote yes on Proposition A.

Why? Because it would force the casinos to pay an additional 1 percent in tax money that would go directly for our schools. Two, it would ensure that no more casinos could be built in Missouri. And finally, by eliminating the $500 loss limit, we would stay competitive with Kansas, which will have no loss limit.

Vote for our children on Election Day.

Don Merker
Raytown

KCK casino should be smoke-free

Kansas missed the boat (pun intended) years ago by not allowing the citizens of the state to vote on legalized gambling.

If Kansas had built a casino on or near the Woodlands, Kansas would have been a one-of-a-kind destination. One can only imagine the jobs, tax revenue and excitement such a facility would have drawn.

Nonetheless, in spite of most our legislature’s stonewalling tactics, Kansas will finally have casino gambling. Now that we are finally headed down this path, let’s be truly creative and think progressively by sticking to our guns and banning smoking, even on the casino floor.

As an ex-smoker — we’re the worst kind, I know — I believe it would not only help our image but draw people who might not go to casinos in an effort to avoid the smoke.

David Pumphrey
Overland Park

I, for one, hope Kansas City, Kan., passes a total smoking ban that would affect the Hard Rock Casino, which is yet to be built. That would be the only casino that I would go to.

The Missouri casinos, with their smoking policy, stink.

Jim Marsicek
Lee’s Summit

Don’t gamble with school funds

With Proposition A to cut “loss limits,” the casinos are saying that if we let them suck people dry, they’ll cut us taxpayers in on a piece of the action. I’m one taxpayer who doesn’t want to make school funding rely on unwise behavior.

Haven’t we lately had enough financial disaster from people’s excessive gambling in the markets? Do we want to make our schools’ financing vulnerable to a sudden outbreak of people being more sensible with their money?

Rachel MacNair
Kansas City

Measure would restrict casinos

I am voting no on Missouri Proposition A for gambling reform, because it will restrict the number of casinos to those already built or being built. If someone wants to build a new casino, they will simply go across the state line to do it, taking customers away from Missouri businesses.

A more meaningful reform that is not included would be to remove the whole riverboat gambling scam and allow them to be built anywhere in the state, not just on rivers.

This proposition is a failed attempt to limit competition when we should encourage the market to determine where and how many casinos to build. After all, opening a new casino is a gamble.

Mack Tilton
Kansas City

Support Proposition A

I’m one of the almost 12,000 people who work at Missouri casinos. These are good jobs with benefits. They’re important to us and to our families. And they’re important to Missouri, particularly in this troubled economy. Unfortunately, our jobs are threatened. Why? Because Missouri is the only state that has complicated, unpopular loss-limit regulations. Because Missouri is now surrounded by six states that have casinos, and Kansas will soon have casinos as well.

Voting yes on Proposition A will get rid of our state’s uncompetitive loss-limit red tape, so we can compete for casino visitors on an equal basis. If Proposition A is not passed by voters, Missouri will increasingly lose casino patrons to other states. That would cause a lot of people like me to lose our jobs. We hope you’ll join us in voting yes on A.

Michael Sosa
Gladstone

Casino, speedway: Your choice

The great thing about having the casino next to the speedway is that you can get taken for a ride either place.

Wade Knight
Junction City, Kan.