Here is part 1 of the Missouri Capitol Notebook scheduled to run in The Kansas City Star. 

By KIT WAGAR

The Star’s Jefferson City correspondent

    JEFFERSON CITY – A proposal to impose a 20-month moratorium on new casino licenses was poised for passage last week, perched atop the list of House bills awaiting a final vote.

   The debate promised to be a showdown between Kansas City gambling interests already worried about two new casinos planned across the river in Kansas and eastern Jackson County residents trying to lure a new casino to Sugar Creek.

   Across the state, in the St. Louis suburb of Maryland Heights, Jimmy Buffett was getting ready to entertain a crowd of parrotheads packed into the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater.

   In the crowd on the House floor – and later in the crowd at Buffett’s concert – was state Rep. Shannon Cooper, the sponsor of the casino moratorium. After the concert, Cooper planned to spend the night at the nearby Ameristar Casino in St. Charles, compliments of Ameristar, whose Kansas City operations stand to lose if a new competitor opens in Sugar Creek.

   Cooper, a Clinton Republican, insisted that the free room had nothing to do with his legislation.

   “As soon as I heard Jimmy Buffett was coming, I got tickets,” Cooper said. “Ameristar is just providing the room.”

   The tickets also came from a lobbyist, Cooper said, but he couldn’t remember which one. It will all be reported next month on lobbyist spending reports to the state Ethics Commission, he said.

   “This is all out there for everyone to see,” Cooper said. “If I were taking a payoff, I wouldn’t do it on the day I’m getting the bill passed. It’s sad that people try to use your Ethics reports to try to make out that you’re a crook.

   “If Ameristar wants to give me a room, I’ll take it. If someone wants to buy me tickets to a concert, I’ll let them. I don’t ask that often.”

   The purpose of the moratorium, he said, was to avoid saturating the Kansas City gambling market before the Gaming Commission had a chance to assess the impact of the new casinos in Kansas. Two recent studies found that a new casino in Sugar Creek would take almost all of its revenue from other casinos in the area.

   Ultimately, House leaders skipped over the legislation and it was never brought up. Rep. Ray Salva, a Sugar Creek Democrat who has supported efforts to bring in a new casino, said it looked bad for the bill’s sponsor to be taking a freebie from a company that stands to benefit on the day the bill was passed.

     “He got caught with his finger in the cookie jar,” Salva said. “That’s why they didn’t bring it to a vote.”

   Salva scoffed at Cooper’s assertions that the free room was unrelated to the legislation. He predicted that Ethics reports would show the tickets came from gambling interests as well.

   “Of course they’re related,” Salva said. “Who can’t see through that? And if he can’t remember who gave him the tickets, then he’s taking too much.”