MORE MISSOURI TOWNS READY TO ROLL DICE

Cities across Missouri, from small riverfront hamlets to urban giants, are betting that riverboat gambling will bring economic prosperity and an abundance of tourists.

In November, Missouri voters legalized riverboat gambling along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. That opened the door for cities and counties fortunate enough to have river access to seek local approval for such gambling.

From small to large, more than a dozen have since approved gambling and Caruthersville voters will join Cape Girardeau in deciding the issue June 8.

In St. Louis, multiple casinos are expected to cruise the Mississippi riverfront, and one study estimated the boats could attract more than $1 billion and 500,000 tourists annually.

After the legislature approved riverboat gambling in 1992, Ste Genevieve, Parkville, St. Charles, Jefferson City and St. Joseph also voted to allow gambling.

Other cities Maryland Heights in suburban St. Louis, Kansas City and North Kansas City followed suit. More recently, the towns of Sugar Creek and Riverside approved gambling in April.

Although cities are hastening to authorize the riverboat casinos, don't expect any boats operating soon in Missouri. On April 29, Gov. Mel Carnahan appointed a five-member gaming commission to regulate the new industry, but rules, regulations and application forms are yet to be established.

Robert L. Wolfson of Clayton, who has been a financial consultant and businessman, is chairman of the commission. He said it's impossible to predict how soon the riverboats will be launched.

Wolfson said the commissioners first must create rules and regulations, which then are subject to the approval of the legislature's joint committee on administrative rules.

"When a guy applies for a gaming license, he gives us a $50,000 non-refundable application fee," Wolfson said. "If he's going to give us $50,000, then the first thing we need are emergency rules to enable them to make application.

"Up until that time, we're not authorized to receive licenses," he added. "I would hope that by the first of August, we would have our preliminary rules, and I would hope the joint committee would approve those rules in due time."

Until that time, cities and counties where gambling has been approved are free to do whatever it takes to secure an acceptable gaming company.

But Wolfson said that any agreement a city makes with a gaming company is merely a recommendation to the commission.

"The city can only authorize gaming," he said. "They can make a deal with anybody and put conditions upon them getting a license. There are certain cities and certain jurisdictions that are ready to go."

But, Wolfson added, those agreements are akin only to "putting an oar in the water," and the gaming commission must give any contract the final nod of approval.

According to Missouri's riverboat gambling law, gaming companies are subject to a background check to ensure they're of "good repute." That investigation also is the commission's responsibility.

"That's totally under the senate bill," he said. "The granting of the license, the investigation of the applicant is all under our jurisdiction."

The gaming commission has scheduled meetings with persons who will be involved with all aspects of gambling from the Coast Guard to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

But no one has suggested that ushering in a new government agency will be an easy task, and commissioners want to ensure the job's done right, Wolfson said.

"You can make two mistakes," he said. "You can over-regulate and discourage a new industry, and you can expand too fast."

One of the first cities to laud the economic benefits of riverboat gambling was St. Louis.

However, East St. Louis, Ill., is expected to get a riverboat soon, and the nearby Alton Belle has been in operation since September 1991. The more competition around St. Louis, officials warn, the less likely some Missouri boats are to succeed.

In St. Louis, four companies have submitted proposals for riverboat casinos along Laclede's Landing, a nine-square block of nightclubs and restaurants north of the Gateway Arch. And two entrepreneurs already involved with St. Louis riverfront projects have proposed riverboat ventures south of the landing.

One of those businessmen, John E. Connelly of Pittsburgh, also is at work in Ste. Genevieve, where he has a contract for a tour boat that could be converted to gambling.

Bill Beckerman, president of the newly completed Marina de Gabouri in Ste. Genevieve, says there are about six other interested developers in the area.

In St. Charles, a burgeoning bedroom community about 20 miles northwest of St. Louis, developer John Schreiber is working for riverboat gambling.

In Jefferson City, the state capital, a Las Vegas company has won preliminary approval from the city council to dock a gambling boat on the Missouri River.

Becker Gaming Group was chosen over four other companies, and the city is working out a contract with the company for an 800-passenger riverboat the Capitol Queen a cluster of buildings near the dock site on the north bank of the Missouri River, and a convention center to be built west of downtown.

In Parkville, a college town of about 3,000 people just north of Kansas City, information on state requirements is being sought by three or four groups.

In Caruthersville, William Yung recently announced his company Columbia Sussex Corp. has leased five acres on the Mississippi riverfront to develop a riverboat casino.

And at least two other companies have followed the lead of the Boyd Group in Cape Girardeau. The Las Vegas gaming company has proposed a $37.5 million riverboat development in Cape.

Also, legislation is pending that would allow residents of four counties around the Lake of the Ozarks to vote on whether they want riverboat gambling on the lake.

The bill passed the House and is expected to be revived next legislative session. Under the bill, voters in Camden, Miller, Morgan or Benton counties could decide if they want the gaming boats docking and operating on their part of the lake.

If gambling is approved by any of the counties, there would be a statewide vote after August 1994 to change the law to allow gaming boats on the lake.

Residents of riverfront cities across the state have heard the same refrain: Riverboat gambling can turn any city into a tourist haven and boost the local economy.

Proponents point to Illinois' six riverboat casinos as proof of the economic windfall gambling can bring.

From March 1992 to March 1993, the Illinois casinos generated $76 million in state and local revenue from a gaming tax alone. But officials say the economic impact from the thousands of jobs the boats have brought to Illinois goes beyond the state and local share of gambling proceeds.

In Missouri, legislative researchers have estimated riverboat gambling could create more than 7,000 new jobs and reap taxes of $28 million a year for the state and $5.4 million for cities and counties that have casinos.

Like other forms of legalized wagering lottery and bingo state revenues from riverboats are to go to education.

Some information for this article was provided by The Associated Press.