As St. Louis and Clayton consider smoking bans, economists Thomas Garrett and Michael Pakko are trying to settle a debate on the effects of the ban that took effect in Illinois last year. The state’s casinos say the ban is costing them…

Missouri’s casinos clearly don’t like competition. They lobbied hard for voter passage of Proposition A, which caps the number of casino licenses in the state at 13. Now, casinos in western Missouri don’t have to worry about competition directly across…

When I wrote a column in January about Illinois’ smoking ban, experts were making dire predictions about the effect on the state’s casinos. Almost a year later, those predictions appear to be coming true.

A story last week in the Chicago…

As my colleague Gail Appleson reported last month, Pinnacle Entertainment would like to move its President Casino a few miles upriver to the area near St. Louis’ Chain of Rocks Bridge.

Other folks in the Missouri gambling industry may have other ideas.…