The level of hypocrisy by the Riverside casino is astounding. A casino is paying for advertising that tells people how bad casinos are for society and how bad it would be for Cedar Rapids. Come On!

I respect the honest views of my neighbors, even if I disagree with them. I can’t respect a casino telling me how bad casinos are.

The “no” organization should have refused to accept financial support from other casinos. That money tarnishes their image and undermines their integrity.

Yes, this news will affect my vote.

Yes it does. I have been leaning toward NO, but maybe it is time to keep Linn Co. money in Linn Co and not Riverside or Tama. I only wish Steve Grey had nothing to do with it. Just don’t trust some of the YES investors.

If memory serves me correctly a casino was put to the voters before Riverside was even on the drawing board and they said no.Now after the flood and the coffers are empty it sounds like a great idea.To see all the ads it makes everyone think the Riverside Casino has a waiting line and cars lined up for miles. Drive by sometime midweek and you will find a different story. Iowa has around 3 million people I dont see how a CR casino is going to drag in half of them. Waterloo Dubuque Davenport and Tama all being within an hour of Cedar Rapids leaves plenty of places to gamble. You missed the boat and now are trying to force something to happen. But back to the question Riverside should have backed the no vote and kept it’s mouth shut.That’s just bad business no matter the commodity.

I agree with you Rich,and to add to that I also wonder if any of the no voters,that tell us that gambleing will have us loose our homes,and put us all in bankrupcy have ever bought a lottery ticket.kind of the same thing,and I would bet they still have there homes,because they did it with some since of responsbilty,I don’t understand why they are so worryed about other peoples money.If you don’t want to gamble then don’t.And yes Riverside is being a hypocrite in this.They just don’t want any compation

I would be voting against the casino with or without the Riverside money. As an opponent, I welcome Riverside’s cash (even though I will never darken their doorway as well).

The Riverside disclosure was no surprise-of course they’ll oppose a casino in such close proximity. What did affect my vote was finding out that Steve Grey and Clark McLeod are on the”Yes” side. I’ll pass on the opportunity to bend over and take it up the you-know-what for them.

Once burned twice shy…

Not one bit! Will still vote yes! A casino in Cedar Rapids will make good healthy competition and may make them both loosen up a bit!

This does certainly raise hypocrisy to a whole new level. Then again the Gray/Skogman people are hardly being forthcoming in their efforts. As usual it’s about money and nothing else. One side wants to make plenty and the other wants to keep plenty. I suppose all the average voter can do is take the wild hyperbole from each side and seek what truth there is somewhere in the middle then make the best call they can. It’s a shame both sides can’t lose on this referendum.

I completely agree with Rich, well said.

I respect the legitimate concerns of in county residents but have no respect for massively profitable outside interests doing all they can to manipulate good hard working folks in Linn County.

The funny thing is, the no ads almost prove the yes ads point

Their worst case scenario of only 120,000 people a year. Do you really think 10,000 people a month visiting Cedar Rapids is bad for the communities business environment. So they admit, worst case scenario is thousands of new consumers per month? I think we will take it

Me and my wife are definite yes votes. And based on my conversations with most people, the only thing standing in a way of a yes verdict is for the yes people to take this lightly and not vote. I have little doubt that this is a “yes” community in sentiment, now we just need it in action!

I am surprised it wasn’t triple that amount, but no it wont influence my vote, as the location within Cedar Rapids of the casino is more important as to whether i vote no or yes.

Back in 2003 a riverboat casino was proposed for Cedar Rapids, the vote failed. Riverside a while later passed a proposal, got a license and built, made it work so to speak. Now we’re going to have a white elephant convention center and hotel downtown, that’s going to need an attraction. If Linn county was so visionary, should have passed before, Riverside deserves to keep what they built. Change my vote, no, not even without outside casino influence, because Linn county will end up being double hosed if the casino comes to pass.

It is seldom thAT I agree with Richie …. well said. I’m voting yes to keep the dollars in Linn County. Interesting that Riverside is taking money from Linn County residents and spending it to tell them and us that casinos are bad. Pretty bizarre but political reality. The one thing we need for campaign finance reform is disclosure!

Why would this matter? Almost every campaign anymore is bankrolled by corporations/competitors trying to protect themselves.

In the end, I think it will make no difference. It still has to go before the Gambling board (or whatever) and Iowa is saturated with casinos. Cedar Rapids had its chance and passed.

It kind of does… the people pushing “no” seem to be a small cadre of local CAVE people (Citizens Against Virtually Everything) and outside casinos dropping millions to tell us how horrible casinos are… blah.

Before all this came out I was debating whether to vote yes or no. At this point I’m debating whether to even bother to vote on this, but I’m pretty certain if I do go to the ballots I won’t vote against it.

People are going to gamble period. For Riverside to spend 1.5 million to buy “no votes” is just the tip of the iceburg as to how much money is being sucked out of Cedar Rapids. I’m voting ‘YES’ to the casino to keep it here. Quit being stupid.

I was in full agreement with you, David….right up until your last sentence when you decided to be a hypocorism of Richard. At least you didn’t try to blame the liberals this time.