GAMBLING PETITION EFFORT WON'T INCLUDE THIS AREA

A national company hired by public and riverboat gambling interests to complete a petition to put a gambling amendment on the November ballot will not be looking for registered voters in Cape Girardeau or Southeast Missouri.

The company has until July 8 to collect about 135,000 signatures of registered voters who support the notion of allowing games of chance on riverboats.

If successful, the issue will be placed on the Nov. 8 ballot for a statewide vote. A similar measure put forth by the state legislature failed at the polls in the April 5 election.

Since the petitioning company needs only to collect signatures equivalent to 8 percent of the population that voted in the last general election in at least six of the state's nine congressional districts, it has chosen Congressional Districts 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 9 to concentrate its efforts.

"That's basically the northern part of the state," said Evelyn Boardman, a representative of Boyd Gaming in Cape Girardeau. "That will include St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbia and Jefferson City."

But Boardman doesn't view the exclusion of the 8th Congressional District as a negative move by the company.

"I'm going to get to enjoy Riverfest this year without collecting all those signatures," said Boardman, recalling last year's petition drive at Riverfest for a local riverboat gambling initiative. "It's actually a load off our shoulders."