Word: casino
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...flame that first lit Grey's fuse was a riverboat casino in Galena, Illinois, the quaint Mississippi River town where he lived quietly with his wife and served as the local Methodist pastor. In 1991, 81% of the townspeople voted against playing host to the boat, but the referendum was nonbinding, and local officials, thirsting for revenue, invited it to dock anyway. "I got mad," recalls Grey. Now, with this nationwide campaign, he adds, "I'm getting even." This hometown fight led to invitations to speak in Iowa, Indiana, Missouri and other states grappling with a riverboat onslaught. Grey...
...recent landing in Mississippi, however, the road-warrior reverend found his path strewn with obstacles. Few states have embraced gambling so wholeheartedly. Since 1992, when the first riverboat casino floated down the Mississippi River to Tunica, the desperately poor county that Jesse Jackson once called "America's Ethiopia," 28 casinos have sprung up from the Tennessee border to the Gulf Coast. These garish palaces employ 27,300 people and last year put $189 million into state and local coffers. "Hey, look, Tom Grey, gaming is working here in Mississippi!" declares host Rip Daniels, welcoming Grey to his talk show...
Daniels is unimpressed. "That's capitalism, isn't it?" he says. "If people lose more than they expected, it's because they were greedy." Grey homes in on gambling addiction and related suicides. "Casinos welcome 'em in, milk 'em dry and throw 'em onto the street," he says. But few of the talk show's callers are converted. "A lot of people have casino jobs and are better off," says Candy. Denise agrees: "It's safe, clean entertainment, and tourists love...
...Biloxi, a once sleepy, now casino-bedecked resort, Grey preaches at the imposing, white-columned First Presbyterian Church. "I'm here to recruit fighters! He's your enlistment sergeant!" Grey announces, pointing to the Rev. James Richter. Richter has seen two recent suicides and several bankruptcies due to gambling. "A lot of roads have gotten paved," he says. "Personally, I'd rather have a few more potholes and a few more lives intact...
...into Delaware, which installed slot machines last September at two tracks; Tennessee envies the tax revenue reaped by Mississippi's Tunica County, thanks to Memphis gamblers; and New York is readying a constitutional amendment that will allow its slot hogs--who are now flocking to the Pequot Indians' Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut--to spend their money at home. Meanwhile, Fahrenkopf has begun to rally not just casino companies but also suppliers, "down to the guys who make the swizzle sticks," he says. And, he notes, "people are voting with their feet--125 million casino visits last year...