With the push to repeal casino loss limits having accrued enough signatures to get on the ballot, Mayor Francis Slay has re-iterated his support for the idea.

Patrons at Missouri casinos are prohibited from purchasing more than $500 in chips per an “excursion” - defined as a two-hour stay.

The state’s gaming industry has complained that this puts them at a competitive disadvantage. What high-roller would want to be limited to wagering $2,000 a day when they can bet that amount in a single hand in the gambling palaces of Vegas and Atlantic City?

Slay, for one, thinks the limits should be revoked.

“I am not gambler or an expert on the business of gambling, ” Slay writes in his blog. “But I do understand the impact of the municipal revenue generated by the brand new Lumiere Place casino downtown.”

If nothing else, the mayor says, he is happy voters will — if the Secretary of State certifies the petition signatures are legit — have the opportunity to decide if they want to keep the cap on betting.

“Missouri voters originally approved riverboat gambling and the loss limit in 1992,” Slay writes. “A decade and a half is probably enough time to see if voters still want the limit.”

It’s important to note that Slay’s stance cannot be attributed to playing lip-service to political donors: City law prohibits casinos or their officers from contributing to the campaign of an alderman, aldermanic president, comptroller or mayor.

Lumiere Place