Loss limits voted out at Missouri casinos
Posted on Saturday, November 8, 2008
JEFFERSON CIT Y, Mo. — The loss limits are off at Missouri casinos.
Although the results of Tuesday’s election are not yet official, Secretary of State Robin Carnahan’s office said Friday that a ballot initiative repealing Missouri’s gambler loss limits took effect immediately on Election Day.
That means gamblers no longer are prohibited from buying more than $ 500 of tokens or betting chips every two hours. Missouri was the only state with such a restriction.
“You can lose as much as you want, as of right now,” Gene Mc-Nary, executive director of the Missouri Gaming Commission, said Friday.
Proposition A, as it was called on the ballot, passed Tuesday with 56 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results. The Missouri Gaming Commission had assumed it would not take effect until Carnahan officially certifies the results, which may not occur until December.
The Gaming Commission received notice Friday morning from Carnahan’s legal counsel that — after consulting with the attorney general’s office — Carnahan’s office had determined the initiative took effect immediately upon its passage Tuesday.
The Gaming Commission then notified Missouri casinos of the decision. Casinos quickly began altering their slot machines to allow unlimited betting and doing away with the mandatory identification cards issued under the old system.
By late Friday afternoon, all of Missouri’s casinos had made the adjustments, McNary said.
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