The gaming industry is banking on voters supporting an effort that the Legislature has repeatedly rejected.

Lawmakers’ failure to lift casino loss limits has prompted Kansas City’s Ameristar Casino to put the question on the ballot in November.

In return for the removal of the $500 loss limits, casinos are willing to up their tax rate a percentage point and prohibit the building of any more casinos in the state to pit fears of gambling expansion.

The deal is aimed at giving Kansas City area casinos a fighting chance when a casino across the river at the Wyandotte County, Kan., Legends shopping complex begins to cash in.

The gamble may not pay off as much for smaller casinos, such as Terrible’s St. Jo Frontier Casino in St. Joseph.

A tax increase from 20 percent to 21 percent of revenue spells an extra $360,000 a year. But General Manager Craig Travers contended what’s a good move for the bigger casinos still helps St. Joseph’s casino.

“The up side is that by eliminating the loss limits, we hope to make it up,” Mr. Travers said. “We’re the only state in the U.S. that has such a limit. It’s a competition issue.”

Casino visitors also would notice a more tangible difference if voters support the measure.

The plastic cards casinos issue at their front gates no longer would be necessary for entry, which would eliminate costs associated with the identification function of the cards now required by the state to ensure no one goes over the loss limits, Mr. Travers explained.

The cards still would be available as an option for players who want to track rewards points, but they no longer would be required to gamble.

The deal Ameristar is putting before voters is similar to a package a local senator tried to push through the Legislature in 2007.

The package from Sen. Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph, would have imposed a higher 2 percent education fee on casinos. That money would have funded scholarships for higher education, while the proposal on the ballot funds elementary education.

Mr. Shields isn’t sure whether voters are more likely to back the issue than legislators, but agreed any effort to repeal loss limits is tough for lawmakers to swallow.

“There’s a lot of legislators who view it as the last part of our original gaming laws ... and they just don’t want to move away from that,” he said.

Opponents also cite Missouri’s loss limits as an effective measure to combat problem gaming, while proponents contend that the limits do little to deter addiction.

Organization

for home workers

Missourians for Quality Home Care also are trying to rally support for another question voters will see on the ballot this November.

The group wants the state to form a Missouri Quality Homecare Council to oversee a Department of Health and Senior Services program that allows certain Medicaid participants to select their own home attendants, a program already in existence for the elderly and disabled.

The consumer council is being pitched as a way to oversee and enhance the program.

“The main purpose of the council is to give consumers a voice in the program,” said group spokesman Alphonso Mayfield.

But the fine print shows that the council would serve as a voice for employees if they choose to unionize.

Services Employees International Union is one of the effort’s primary backers, Mr. Mayfield said.

Alyson E. Raletz can be reached

at alysonraletz@npgco.com.