BOAT CASINO ALLIES HOPEFUL ON ELECTION

Nobody is predicting the outcome of Amendment 6 voting on Nov. 8, but a recent statewide poll indicates most voters favor the measure to allow slot machines on Missouri riverboats.

The Mason-Dixon Political-Media Research Inc. survey was conducted last week via a telephone poll of 817 registered voters. The overall margin of error in the poll is plus or minus 3.5 percent.

The poll revealed that 52 percent of the voters favor the measure, 38 percent opposed it and 10 percent are undecided on the issue to allow games of chance.

Only games of skill, such as blackjack, craps and poker, are allowed on the state's five gambling riverboat operations.

Mason-Dixon poll officials say, however, that the election is still too close to call because some undecided voters will tend to vote against Amendment 6, just as they will tend to vote against Amendment 7, the Hancock II measure, where the poll shows only 33 percent support.

A regional poll also shows Amendment 6 faring well.

"Our poll shows the amendment in the lead," said Evelyn Boardman, "But like the state poll, it's too early to make any predictions."

Boardman, a representative of Boyd Gaming Corp. in Cape Girardeau. The casino operator is planning riverboats at Cape Girardeau and Kansas City if the Nov. 8 issue passes.

With little more than a week before the election, gambling backers and opponents are looking to grass-roots efforts in the final days of the campaign.

Supporting the measure is a statewide group called Vote YES, operating with a $5 million budget provided primarily by casino interests. That money is producing electronic and print media ad campaigns that include educators and business people urging the "yes" vote.

On the other side are two groups -- Churches vs. CasiNOs, and Missouri Citizens for Life Land Liberty.

The Vote YES group has six offices throughout the state, including Kansas City and St. Louis, the two largest metropolitan areas.

"Essentially, we're continuing our grass-roots efforts," said Dee Tororian, deputy press secretary at the St. Louis headquarters. "We're deploying the many thousands of volunteers that have indicated they want to be active in this campaign.

Boardman and Steve Murphy, who mans the Vote YES campaign office here, are mirroring those efforts in Southeast Missouri.

"We're running our telephone campaign here," Boardman said. "We're calling people on our Vote YES list daily, urging them to vote, and we're providing bumper stickers and yard signs."

"We're reminding people that a vote yes is not a vote on gambling," Tororian said. "We already have gambling. Missourians voted overwhelming to have gambling on riverboats in November of 1992. Amendment 6 simply allows slot machines on those boats."

The YES group also emphasizes that state revenues generated by the gambling industry are earmarked for education.

But opponents of the gambling industry, including Mark Andrews, president of Missouri Citizen for Life Land Liberty, predicts that education won't be helped by the measure, claiming that legislators will move money in and out of education budgets so that the school won't get a net increase.

Local gambling opponents are busy, too, discussing the negatives of gambling and urging people to go to the polls and vote against Amendment 6.

Pro-gambling interests also point to improved economic development if Amendment 6 passes.

"We're looking at 11 boats in the state," Tororian said. With 11 boats, employment will more than double in the Missouri casino industry, he said.

The proposed Boyd plan for Cape Girardeau calls for a $51 million operation with employment over the 800 mark.

Opponents see the election as a way to kill the gambling industry in Missouri, predicting that without slot machines, the gambling industry will die in the state.

None of the five boats already operating are earning projected returns. Throughout the industry, slot machines contribute an average of 65 percent of a casino's take.