STRICTLY BUSINESS: GAMBLING: IT'S UP TO VOTERS IN LOUISIANA

What happens if a state's voters decide to wipe out a multimillion-dollar industry?

This is situation in Louisiana this winter.

Voters in the Pelican state will finally have a say on whether gambling should stay in the nation's first major attempt to repeal legalized forms of gambling.

On Nov. 5, every parish -- the Louisiana equivalent of county -- will have a local-option vote on video poker.

Forty-three counties, including the six with riverboat casinos and 37 on navigable waterways, will decide on floating casinos.

And, voters in New Orleans will decide whether to permit the revival of the delayed land-based casino project in downtown New Orleans, owned by Harrah's Jazz Co., which is in bankruptcy proceedings.

Also on the ballot will be a proposed constitutional amendment calling for local-option votes before any new gambling ventures can go into a Louisiana county.

Gambling opponents in Louisiana say the gambling industry could come out relatively unscathed as local communities will choose to hold onto jobs and tax dollars instead of stopping gambling for good.

12 casinos, 13,000 jobs

The Louisiana River Boat Gaming Division estimates that gambling operations provide the state with as many as 13,000, including about 4,500 in New Orleans and more than 3,000 in Lake Charles.

Each riverboat casino averages about 1,100 workers, said a gaming division representative. Louisiana has 12 operating casinos. Four of the operations are in the New Orleans area and three at Lake Charles.

Gambling came to Louisiana in the early 1990s under Gov. Edwin Edwards and his predecessor Buddy Roemer, when it was approved by the Louisiana Legislature.

First-term Gov. Mike Foster this year proposed a November vote of the people with what he called an "up (yes)-and-down (no) referendum" for gambling.

Some advocates of repealing gambling say the governor should have proposed the legislature ban all gambling by law.

However, Foster said legislative repeal would result in the gambling industry returning to the Legislature year after year.

Louisiana has three gambling divisions -- land based, water-based and video poker.

Voters will get only one shot at repeal. However, gambling operations have no limit on how many times they can ask to "open" the state gambling.

In other words, said Chaney Joseph, executive council at the governor's office in Baton Rouge, if voters approve gambling, that's it ... no more votes.

However, if voters nix gambling, or any portion of gambling, in their parish, gambling interests could request a second vote, which would be up to the Legislature.

If voters do nix gambling, or any portion of it in their parish, gambling operations can continue to operate until their three-year contracts end.

Voters had say in Missouri

Missouri voters had their say before any gambling licenses were issued. In a November 1992 vote, voters approved cruising riverboat gambling.

With four gaming boats, at St. Louis, St. Charles, Kansas City and St. Joseph, the Missouri Supreme Court in 1994 ruled the state constitution must be changed before games of chance, such as slot machines, were legal on riverboats on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

Thus, voters were asked to specify between gambling skills (video poker and table games), and the no-skill slot machines.

It took two tries before voters finally approved the new Amendment 6 to the Missouri Constitution, allowing slot machines on gambling boats.

Voters narrowly rejected slots in an April 1994 vote, 528,072 to 526,811. But the turnout was heavier during a petitioned vote in November, as more than 1.6 million voters turned out. Voters approved slots, 54 to 36 percent.

Legislated in Illinois

Illinois gambling came about much same as Louisiana. The Illinois Legislature approved the issue and established 10 sites for riverboat casinos. The 10 casinos employ more than 15,000 workers.

In 1995, the gambling industry provided Illinois with more than $285 million in taxes -- $202 million to the state and $83 million to communities where boats are.

Latest statistics from the Illinois Gaming Commission show that gambling is alive and well, with increases from May 1995 figures.

Some 2.2 million visitors boarded riverboat casinos in May, up 2.1 percent from the 2.8 million visitors in May 1995. May totals were up 3.4 percent from April's.

Players Riverboat, the southernmost operation at Metropolis, reported 159,300 visitors in May, an average of more than 5,100 a day, down from the 164,900 of May 1995 but up more than 1 percent from 157,449 in April.

Players employs more than 850 people, many of them from Southern Illinois. This has helped Massac County attain one of the lowest unemployment rates in Southern Illinois, at 5 percent.

Some citizens in Metropolis opposed the gambling operation which started there in February of 1993, but there are now few complaints about the economic benefits -- more than 850 employees, more than $10 million in local taxes during the past two years and more than 3 million visitors to the area over the past two years.

An Illinois casino reopens

The Silver Eagle riverboat casino at East Dubuque, Ill., is back.

The Silver Eagle folded operations in December after more than three years, citing too much gambling competition from across the Mississippi River in Iowa.

The riverboat resumed its cruises recently with a new marketing strategy -- operate on a thin profit margin with a low overhead. The casino has more slot machines and less labor-intensive gaming tables, enabling the company to cut its staff by half, to about 175 employees.

The boat's chief operating officer said he would still like to move the casino to another site to get away from Dubuque, Iowa, where often-moored riverboats, dog races and land-based slots draw gamblers away from Illinois.

The Illinois Gaming Board will decide this summer whether to renew Silver Eagle's state license.

B. Ray Owen is business editor for the Southeast Missourian.