If Missouri wants to remove slot machines from casinos, it has to be done by telling the truth and giving voters credible information, says a representative of a group opposed to boats in moats.

About 25 people met Thursday night with a representative of Show Me the River, a lobbying group based in Chesterfield, to learn about how they can defeat a gambling issue. Most who attended represented local churches in Cape Girardeau.

Missouri voters will be asked Nov. 3 whether to allow slot machines on boats in moats. The state constitution allows the casinos to operate slots only on boats on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

Locally, there is no broad-based group or coalition linking the various denominations in opposition to the proposal, known as Amendment 9.

Boats in moats is "certainly not what Missouri wanted and not what the Supreme Court agreed with," said the representative, who spoke anonymously, citing fear of repercussions from pro-casino groups.

Since several casino groups wrote the amendment and have formed coalitions in support of its passage, it is hardly a citizen's issue, the representative said.

Television ads in support of the amendment run almost nightly at an average cost of $35,000 each. Casinos are not ailing financially, she said.

Despite the money spent by casino interests, grass-roots efforts can have an effect, Show Me the River says.

"I don't want you to be overwhelmed by this but to be armed with this," the representative said.

"We are people who know what we believe and have the research to back it up with," she said.

She cited studies listing higher rates of bankruptcies, divorces, addictions and suicides linked to gambling.

Melvin Gateley, who helped organize the meeting at Lynwood Baptist Church, said the issue isn't one solely based on religious convictions.

"Churches have ordinary and working people who just care about their town," he said.

Getting information to voters is easier within the structure of a church, Gateley said. He mailed cards and letters to 70 churches in Cape Girardeau to tell them of the meeting.

The pastor of Cornerstone Church asked members Jerry and Lucille Segraves to attend the meeting and find out more about the amendment.

The Segraveses believe that the grass-roots effort can work if churches show support. "Or it could just fall in their lap," Jerry Segraves said.

Similar organizational meetings have been held in churches in Sikeston and Miner.

Members of Missouri's United Methodist churches were among the first denominations to speak out in opposition to the amendment. Other groups, like Missouri Baptists, Latter-Day Saints and Assemblies of God churches have now added their support.

But Gateley said Cape Girardeau churches worked to help defeat the gambling issue when it was first proposed, and they're ready to fight again in November.