CAPE BEST SITE FOR GAMBLING, SAYS GROUP

Cape Girardeau is the most logical site for the lone gambling license that inevitably will be granted in the vicinity, members of the group working to bring riverboat gaming to the city contended Tuesday.

The Yes Group press conference on the banks of the Mississippi River came a day after the Southeast Missouri Port Authority announced signing an option agreement with Minnesota-based Casino Magic Corp.

Both Cape Girardeau city and Scott County voters will go to the polls Nov. 2 to decide whether to approve the local option allowing gambling. If both or either do, the state Gaming Commission then would decide whether to grant a license to companies in one, both or neither location.

Those companies would be chosen by the local governments. Unlike the port, Cape Girardeau has declined to negotiate an option agreement with a company, even though the Las Vegas-based Boyd group has proposed a $37.5 million development on the waterfront.

The Yes Group contends that the commission won't license gambling in both locales. That makes it "extremely urgent that our vote in November is successful," said David Knight, one of the Yes Group's five directors.

Knight said the supposition that the number of gaming licenses will be limited geographically or numerically is based upon the practice followed by Illinois. "It is conjecture on our part based on history," he said.

But Avis Tucker, a Warrensburg newspaper publisher who is one of five members of the state Gaming Commission, said the Yes Group's assumption is without foundation.

"There's no indication we're following Illinois' path in any way," she said.

At any rate, the Yes Group contends that Cape Girardeau is the best local riverboat gambling location since it has the historically significant sites and the facilities to become a tourist destination, and the infrastructure in place to accommodate the development.

Chuck McGinty Jr., another Yes Group director, pointed out that 46 states now have some form of legalized gambling. "The verdict is out," he said. "...The verdict is not guilty."

Yes Group members said riverboat gambling will bring much-needed dollars to Cape Girardeau in the form of an estimated 800 jobs, all of which are guaranteed by statute to pay at least 25 percent above the prevailing minimum wage.

Knight estimated the average wage at $27,500, and pointed out that the gaming law requires that Missouri workers must be used whenever possible.

All those people won't be from Cape Girardeau, Knight said. "We will have people from Poplar Bluff, Jackson and Perryville moving to Cape. That means there are more people to buy and shop."

While Cape Girardeau's institutions and larger west side businesses are thriving, McGinty said, "locally-owned, independent businesses are suffering."

Added McGinty, "We are watering the big trees but we are overlooking the flowers."

In a press release, the group also maintains that the estimated $360,000 in gambling revenues that would go directly to the public schools is "even more important now, given the fact that voters once again rejected a school bond issue."

Evelyn Boardman, another director, said the city is "poised on the brink of an economic opportunity we've never had before and will never have again."

Said McGinty, "Tell your friends they might as well get on the bandwagon and vote yes Nov. 2.