BOYD: SLOT PASSAGE `BIG DAY FOR CAPE'

A constitutional amendment to legalize slot machines and other games of chance on Missouri's riverboat casinos was passed by Missouri voters Tuesday night.

Amendment 6 received voter approval by the narrow margin of 155 votes, 12,308-12,153, in Cape Girardeau County, and by just over 100 votes in adjoining Perry County, 2,726-2618.

With most precincts in, the measure was also ahead in Pemiscot County, 2,475-2,223. But, voters in Bollinger, Mississippi, and New Madrid counties were defeating the measure.

Don Poston, a spokesman for the Amendment 6 committee, said the numbers were encouraging.

"This is a big day for Cape Girardeau," said Maunty Collins, a senior vice president and director of Central Region operations for the Boyd Gaming Corp., which has been selected by the city of Cape Girardeau to establish a gambling riverboat operation.

"The boat for Cape Girardeau is nearing completion," said Collins, who was in Cape Girardeau to keep watch on the Amendment 6 results. "We'll be taking delivery on the boat within the next month."

Collins said he would be meeting with Boyd corporate officials today in Las Vegas.

"Missouri operations have been on hold pending this vote," Collins said. "We're ready to crank up our plans again. We're ready to move forward."

In April, Missourians voted 528,287-527,011 against allowing games of chance in casinos. That vote was conducted because the state Supreme Court in January threw out part of the riverboat-gambling law approved overwhelmingly in Missouri in November 1992.

When the original riverboat gambling issue passed in November 1992, more than 2.2 million voters turned out, with 1.4 million casting ballots for the gambling issue.

The Missouri Supreme Court later ruled that only games of skill could be played in riverboat casinos. That left out slot machines, which account for up to two-thirds of the revenues generated at casinos.