BRANSON, Mo., July 22, 2004 – While voters across the state are receiving erroneous versions of Amendment 1 in their mailboxes from backers of a Rockaway Beach casino, opponents of the casino measure are praising state newspapers for speaking out against the misleading ad campaign.

Chip Mason, treasurer for Show Me You Care, a group opposed to Amendment 1, said at least three different pieces of pro-casino campaign literature omit “gambling” in their wording of Amendment 1 ballot language. The first sentence of the official Amendment 1 language starts out, “Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to authorize floating gambling facilities …”. The word “gambling” is missing from supporters’ materials.

“This is a deceitful tactic by the supporters of Amendment1 as they try to sneak the expansion of Missouri casino gambling past voters on Aug. 3,” Mason said.

All three of the state’s top newspapers have taken to task Missourians for Economic Opportunity, Inc., the political name of the pro-Amendment 1 faction. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (July 18) called the word omission by the casino group its “latest gimmick” during their $10 million ad campaign. A Springfield News-Leader (July 19) editorial titled “Casino campaign aims to mislead” stated, “Apparently, casino campaigns aren’t for people who are sticklers for the facts.”  Like the other two papers, The Kansas City Star (July 11) attacked the entire Amendment 1 proposal, especially its wording that promises to help education. “Missouri voters shouldn’t be hoodwinked by the latest scheme to build more casinos,” the Kansas City editorial stated.

During a St. Louis call-in radio show on Monday, casino investor Robert Low said “professionals” working on the campaign must have overlooked the omission of “gambling” in the mock ballot. He also admitted he and other members of the Minnesota-based casino management team did not catch the mistake. Since then, two additional campaign pieces have been identified with “gambling” missing from the opening line of purportedly official ballot language.

“This so-called minor mistake is the tip of the iceberg,” said Peter Herschend, co-owner of Herschend Family Entertainment and the main contributor to the Show Me You Care campaign. Herschend said the actual ballot language claims gambling revenues will fund education.

“The educational programs mentioned in Amendment 1 don’t even exist,” said Herschend, current vice president and a 13-year member of the Missouri State Board of Education. There are no approved state rules identifying “high quality teachers employed in priority schools” as stated on the ballot.

“According to Amendment 1, the state would award monies to failing districts and a selected few teachers within those districts,” Herschend explained. “And when the schools succeed, the money stops. It clearly sounds like incentive for both the schools and the teachers to fail. That’s not what our schools or our teachers want – they want children to succeed. They don’t want reward programs for poor performance.”

Herschend said he believes the school funding language was added to “sugarcoat” Amendment 1 for urban voters in Kansas City and St. Louis

Casino proponents apparently agree. The Kansas City Star Sunday quoted Robert Low, the main contributor to the casino effort and owner of Prime, Inc. and the Palace Casino in Biloxi, Miss., as saying that ballot language for troubled schools in Kansas City and St. Louis was included as a campaign tactic.

“That's where the votes are,” he said. “If we can help Kansas City and St. Louis, and then ask them to help us, that's good political strategy.”

Herschend said the best strategy is to “Vote no on Amendment 1 and let honest, small businesses continue to grow with our family-friendly tourism industry.”

For more information, visit the Show Me You Care Web site at www.Amendment1NO.com.