For anyone who works or lives downtown, it’s hard to miss the enormous investment Pinnacle Entertainment is making on its new Lumière Place casino on the riverfront.

And, if somehow you have, just wait for the sun to go down, as our story today by Diane Toroian Keaggy shows.

All of that bling begs the question: Is the gaming industry banking on an end to the loss limits?

Pinnacle has spent $500 million building the 24-story hotel and casino complex. That money will be far harder to recoup under current state rules, where patrons are prohibited from purchasing more than $500 in chips every two hours.

Under those restrictions, if a player gambled for 24 hours without stopping - and lost every time - the house would only be up $6,000. If they continued for a week without any sleep, the casino would still reap, at most, $42,000 - that’s one hand of blackjack at Caesars Palace in Vegas.

Meanwhile, two bordering states - Illinois and Kansas - are considering ratcheting up their gambling operations, while a third, Kentucky, is poised to enter the market for the first time.

It’s hard to imagine that Pinnacle has made such a huge wager in St. Louis without, at least, the glimmer that the loss limit will be repealed. The Gaming Association barely missed doing it the last legislative session - will 2008 be the year?

Then again, the Lumière display featured in today’s paper uses environmentally-friendly lights, which cost only $25 a day to illuminate.

Maybe the casino is hedging its bet.