Not long after riverboat gambling got under way in Bettendorf, a colleague and I met for lunch aboard the graceful Lady Luck paddlewheeler.
It was the first warm day in April after a long hard winter and the sun was shining brightly as we left shore on our two-hour cruise. Lunch in the wood-paneled dining room on the main floor was very enjoyable, complete with white linen tablecloth and napkins, silver dinnerware and excellent food.
Even after a leisurely lunch, we had time to take in the sights and smell of spring and headed to the top deck. As we climbed the stairs from the restaurant, we noticed a gambling area on the second level. The windowless room was filled with banks of slot machines at which mostly women sat transfixed in their efforts to win the jackpot.
The scene has stuck in my mind ever since, a visual juxtaposition of the promise and reality of riverboat gambling.
Few would argue riverboat gambling has devolved from the promise of a family entertainment tourist attraction to a giant slot machine hall. And, few have objected to the flow of money from gamblers to state and city coffers and the budgets of nearly every non-profit organization in the Quad Cities region.
Milking money from our fellow citizens frequenting the gambling boats has become an established, perhaps even addicting, practice for our community. Witness the reaction to declines in gambling revenues (e.g. gamblers). Such trends are portrayed as unhealthy, creating budget problems for government and charities.
Fewer people gambling and fewer people losing their money in slot machines would seem to be an overall good thing in a healthy community.
Bernie Goldstein, aptly named the "father" of riverboat gambling, lived in our Bettendorf neighborhood about the time he helped convince the state legislature to approve the landmark legislation and brought the first gambling boat, The Lady Luck, to town. It was not uncommon to see him out walking his dog in the morning during the spring and summer.
He moved to Florida long ago and died in July 2009. Always wondered if he ever thought about the gamblers, pulling on those slot machines on a beautiful riverboat on a nice spring day on the Mississippi River.
