Tuesday, March 11, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
In days of old, casino gambling conjured up images of thugs in dark suits, mob families battling over turf, and crime run rampant.
Nothing like that has happened in Missouri since riverboat gambling arrived nearly three years ago, experts say.
In fact, leaders of towns and cities with riverboats say the casinos are good corporate neighbors, sponsoring kids' ball teams, funding Fourth of July parades. Casino executives are active in chambers of commerce and other civic groups.
"There is no sign of organized crime at all," said John Gulley, who heads the FBI's St. Louis office. "Crime is actually down in the cities where the boats are."
Gambling critics say the crime statistics are misleading, claiming hard-to-measure white-collar crimes are likely on the rise.
"A majority of compulsive gamblers turn to crime to feed their addictions," said Bernie Horn of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling. "These people tend to be those who have never committed crimes before. So the crimes they commit are embezzlement, check kiting, credit card fraud, insurance fraud, tax evasion."
But Mike Ryan, director of the Missouri Riverboat Gaming Association, said there is no evidence of a rise in white-collar crime.
"At some point, the (gambling opponents) are going to have to stop talking about what they think is going to happen," Ryan said. "That dog don't hunt."
There have been a few high-profile cases:
-Authorities continue to investigate the Nov. 27 murder of C. Harold Ash, who was gunned down by suspected robbers after winning $3,000 at the Harrah's casino in North Kansas City.
-In January 1996, a man was shot in the chest at the parking lot of the Casino Aztar in Caruthersville. A month earlier, someone tried to rob an Arkansas man on the same parking lot.
-In St. Louis, Daryl Lenard was arrested in February for allegedly stealing more than $50,000 from the Midnite Basketball Program he was hired to oversee, with most of the money allegedly used to gamble at the Casino Queen in East St. Louis, Ill.
Still, police in riverboat towns agree problems around the casinos have been few.
"We have not experienced violent criminal activity of any serious nature whatsoever since the opening of the riverboat," St. Charles police chief David King said. "Now we'll have a fight now and then, we'll have indecent exposure from people not getting to the restroom on time."
The lack of crime should come as no surprise, said Vern Jennings, general manager at Riverport Casino Center, scheduled to open this month in suburban St. Louis.
"We hire almost a police force," said Jennings, whose casino employs 150 security officers, far more than the number of police officers employed by its host city, Maryland Heights.
Many cities have also earmarked portions of their share of gambling proceeds to fight crime. Gaming tax revenue is helping to pay for a new jail in St. Louis, a police substation in Caruthersville, six new officers in St. Charles, new police cars in St. Joseph.
The effort to fight crime begins long before the casinos arrive.
The Missouri Gaming Commission, the agency that oversees gambling, has developed perhaps the most stringent background checks in the nation for casinos and their employees, said Larry Pearson, publisher of the trade publication Passenger Vessel News, in New Orleans.
Under the commission's direction, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Internal Revenue Service spend up to nine months investigating all license applicants and their key executives, including board members. The company must pay all the costs of the background checks.
"We contact federal agencies, prosecuting attorneys, U.S. attorneys, various intelligence bases," said Mel Fisher, the former chief of the highway patrol who now heads the investigative unit of the Gaming Commission.
"Are they people of character? Is there anything in their background to preclude them from being licensed? Is there any hidden ownership, any mob money involved in it?"
One company, Becker Gaming of Las Vegas, was denied a license for a boat in Jefferson City for allegedly misleading the Gaming Commission on its license applications. The commission said Becker failed to disclose a nearly $6 million contract with a Kansas City attorney and his associates.
Although a judge later overturned the denial, Becker has withdrawn its license application in Missouri.
The Gaming Commission's background checks extend to all potential casino employees. Convicted felons are prohibited from working on the riverboats, and others with questionable backgrounds usually don't hold up to the scrutiny, Fisher said.
"They get photographed, fingerprinted, have their taxes checked," Fisher said. "We get their arrest backgrounds, check if they owe child support.
"On the lower level it's not uncommon to find people who are wanted for various crimes. Usually somewhere during the investigation they'll decide they don't want to proceed."
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