GAMBLING BACKERS FILE PETITIONS FOR SLOTS VOTE

A campaign group financed by the riverboat casino industry filed about 20,000 pages of petitions, containing more than 200,000 signatures, to the Secretary of State's office Friday, seeking a vote to legalize boats in moats.

The group gathered about 80,000 more signatures than required from registered voters to place the constitutional amendment on the ballot.

The proposed amendment would authorize slot machines to be played on riverboats that sit in artificial basins in rivers. The effort is in response to a state Supreme Court ruling that said the constitution only allowed slot machines on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

The riverboat gambling industry received the green light from the secretary of state less than a month ago to circulate petitions aimed at changing the state constitution. Friday was the final day the petitions could be turned in for the fall election.

Jim Grebing, communications director for Secretary of State Bekki Cook's office, said the petitions would be forwarded to local election officials to verify that the signatures are valid.

"If enough signatures are valid, the secretary of state will put the amendment on the ballot by Aug. 25," said Grebing.

The signatures were gathered from every Missouri county by the Missourians for Fairness and Jobs group. Names were obtained by casino employees, paid petition circulators and volunteers, said Don Poston, a spokesman for the group.

Missourians for Fairness and Jobs is a group financed by four Missouri casino operators -- Harrah's Entertainment, Players International, Station Casinos, and Hilton Hotels, which accounts for 10 of the 15 casinos in the state.

The four casino companies are all affected by the court ruling that Missouri voters approved games of chance only for casinos that float on the rivers, not those in artificial basins.

Harrah's has four casinos -- two in St. Louis and two in Kansas City -- which are affected.

The proposed amendment would allow slot machines on "artificial spaces that contain water and that are within 1,000 feet of the closest edge of the main channel of either" the Mississippi or Missouri rivers.

For the riverboats, the stakes are enormous. Slot machines account for roughly two-thirds of their casino revenues in Missouri.

If the proposed amendment makes the November ballot but is rejected by voters, "there is a very good chance these boats would close," Poston said.

The gambling companies say that will cost thousands of jobs at casinos and flatten perhaps $170 million in annual revenues to state and local governments.

One company, Boyd Gaming Corp., headquartered in Las Vegas, has already announced it is leaving Missouri, regardless of the November vote results.

Boyd's Sam's Town, which opened its casino operation in the North Kansas City area in the fall of 1995, will close within two months, claiming the state presents too many unusual challenges that have negatively impacted overall operating results.

This includes the specified "boarding times" and a $500 loss limit per visit.

Harrah's Entertainment will purchase the Boyd Corp. assets -- a 26,000-square-foot riverboat, 80,000 square feet of land facilities and all the Sam's Town gambling equipment, for about $12.5 million.

The Missourians for Fairness and Jobs say a "yes" vote to the riverboat amendment will prevent thousands of Missouri residents from losing their jobs. Another group, AFFIRM also supports the November "Yes" vote.

A group of casino employees formed the Association for Freedom and Individual Rights in Missouri (AFFIRM), a grass-roots organization to counter campaigns being waged by opponents of gaming, in February.

"Those of us who depend on gaming for our livelihoods have grown sick and tired of the lies and half-truths coming from gaming opponents," said Frank Oppenheim, one of the founders of the Association for Freedom and Individual Rights in Missouri.

Oppenheim said the association is registering as a permanent lobbying organization to represent the interests of casino workers, patrons and others. He said the group had no formal ties to the state's casinos, however.