STRICTLY BUSINESS: RIVERBOAT CASINOS A BIG DRAW FOR TOURISM

The chartered bus from Nashville was one of more than 60 a week that roll onto the parking lot of Players Riverboat Casino at Metropolis, Ill.

The passengers disembark and make their way down the steps to the facility's receptions desks. In most instances, the crowd, many of them senior citizens, stop at the counters to cash in "special" coupons for $5, $10 or more, for tokens to insert into the more than 1,000 slot machines at the facility, ranging from nickel slots to $5.

Others take time to visit the restaurant, where free meals are provided.

Twenty years ago, Atlantic City and Las Vegas were America's only two gambling Meccas, but casinos have spread across the nation now and can be found in 38 states.

A recent federal study found that the percentage of 65-and-over Americans who recently gambled jumped from 20 percent in 1974 to 50 percent in 1998, a surge unmatched by any other age group.

Casinos make seniors feel welcome. Surveys indicate that casino outings are the most popular type of day trip for retired Americans.

The trip to a casino can be a low-cost endeavor. The trip itself, anyway.

In some cases, the 200-mile trip from Nashville may cost $20. The passengers get as much as $15 of that back from the casino when they arrive for a six-to-eight-hour stay. They may receive another $5 to $10 in food, so basically the trip costs them nothing.

But some visitors bring more money.

On one outing, a lady lost $100, despite winning an early $50 at the machines.

"I don't play to win," said another. "Let somebody else win. This is just an outing for me. Getting away for the day."

Southern Illinois and Eastern Missouri are not among the top 10 tourist attractions in the state, but that is changing with the event of riverboat casinos.

A "Summer 2001 Travelometer" reveals that 86 percent of travelers plan to take at least one trip this summer, up significantly from last summer. A lot of those trips will be to casinos.

Like the Players Riverboat Casino.

More than two million admissions are recorded at the casino.

The bulk of these visitors are from out of town, including more than 2,500 bus passengers every month, with an average of 60 buses a week, with as many as 40 to 45 passengers each.

Some of the buses stay overnight. Others come in for six to eight hours.

Missouri riverboat gambling has created increases in tourism and local economies throughout the areas where casinos are located. In Pemiscot County, in the Bootheel, tourism spending has tripled over the past half decade, since the opening of the Aztar Riverboat Gambling Casino, which attracts more than a million visitors to Caruthersville each year.

Casinos have also created big tourism boosts to the St. Louis and Kansas City area.

Remember when the St. Louis baseball Cardinals were the big draw to St. Louis, with 2.5 million to 3 million fans a year?

No longer. The Cards are still a big draw, with attendance past the 3 million mark the past two seasons.

But the Cards are only fourth on the attraction list, behind two casinos and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial at the Gateway Arch.

The state has 15 riverboat casinos at 10 sites, which attract as many as 25 million visitors a year.

The casinos pay out more than $350 million a year in wages and benefits, and provide as many as 11,000 jobs in the state.

In addition, more than $280 million has been funneled into cities where the casinos are located via admission fees a 2 percent tax on casino receipts.

The Missouri riverboat gambling industry has piled up some big numbers since the first casino opened in June 1994.

Welcome Arch Air

Arch Air Medical Services made it official last weekend.

The critical care ambulance service, based in St. Louis, is in its new quarters at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, where a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Friday.

Arch Air serves hospitals and EMS services in a number of areas, with helicopters based in downtown St. Louis, Spirit of St. Louis Airport at Chesterfield, Sparta, Ill., and Joplin, Mo., and Cape Girardeau.

With the addition of the Cape Girardeau base, it will serve 169 Missouri and Illinois counties.

Arch Air Medical Services Inc. took over the Life Beat Air Medical Service in Cape Girardeau

Employment improving

Employment has improved in deep Southern Illinois during the past month.

With good weather conditions, they could improve even more this month. Stable weather conditions would allow farming and construction activities to expand.

About half of the 22 counties in the Southern Illinois labor market have unemployment rates below those of a year ago. Only two counties are in unemployment double figures.

Some recent announcements could added to the optimistic outlook of the future.

An expansion program has been announced for the Maytag manufacturing facility at Herrin, Ill. This will result in 100 or so jobs in the future.

Maytag Corp., which now employs more than 1,350 workers, is third on the list of Southern Illinois employers, behind Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, with 5,397 employees, and Gilster-Mary Crop., headquartered Chester, Ill., with about 3,300 employees.

Another big announcement was made at Herrin last week, when Aisin USA Mft.. Inc., of Seymour, Ind., announced plans to locate a new $20 million auto component plant and 200 new jobs at a new industrial park near Herrin in Williamson County, which reports about 6.8 percent unemployment.

Site work could begin next month, with plant constructed starting later this summer. Workers could be hired and start training late this year or early in 2002.

The new facility will assemble automotive components for Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana (TMMI) in Princeton, Ind., which makes minivans. Other Aisin customers include Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Subaru, GM, CAMI and NUMMI.

The 150,000-square-foot plant will be on a 43-acre tract in the new 289-acre REDCO Industrial Park, north of Illinois 13 and east of Williamson County Airport.

But with the good comes some bad news. Mattel Toy Co., which has been in Murray, Ky., since the mid-1970s, is closing. This will mean the los of almost 1,000 jobs over the next 18 to 24 months. The plant, like a number of others, is heading to Mexico.

The blue light is back

Remember the flashing blue lights observed in Kmart stores a decade ago?

Kmart Corp. is counting on the revival of the "Blue Light Special" to help boost sales and profits.

The nation's third largest retailer had used the flashing blue light, created in 1965 and abandoned in 1991, to direct customers to unadvertised sales items.

During the late 1980s, it apparently lost its luster as it became another way of getting rid of unwanted merchandise and damaged goods.

With its revival, Kmart is abandoning the mobile cart with the flashing blue light stick and has instead installed Blue Light Zones in the middle of the stores.