CARUTHERSVILLE RIVERBOAT SAFE FROM RULING; ONE OF FEW CASINOS NOT IN A MOAT

CARUTHERSVILLE -- Aztar Casino is among only a few Missouri gambling boats not on what could become an endangered list.

More than half of 16 operating casinos face problems as a result of the Missouri Supreme Court's recent ruling on boats in moats.

Many of the new riverboat casinos look more like buildings than excursion vessels; they never leave the dock and some don't have engines. And they aren't on rivers, but in shallow moats filled with piped-in river water.

The Missouri Gaming Commission says just three of the 16 operations comprising Missouri's $652 million riverboat gambling industry are clearly on a main river channel.

Missouri's high court appears to have dealt a losing hand to these landlocked boats in moats.

Casino Aztar has no problems with the court ruling.

The small City of Caruthersville riverboat, docked along the Mississippi River at Caruthersville, has a motor and could float if need be.

Another operation within confines of the latest ruling is that of the Admiral in downtown St. Louis. The Admiral is permanently moored in the Mississippi.

The Supreme Court ruled casinos must be "solely over and in contact with the surface" of rivers. It also said areas where boats float can be manmade, but must be "contiguous to the surface stream"

At Sam's Town in the Kansas City area, a basin that houses the riverboat is dug into the river bank. Boyd Corp.'s riverboat has an engine and made the trek from Louisiana to Kansas City.

The Gaming Commission will hold hearings soon on whether the other boats meet the Supreme Court standard.

The operators of Missouri's riverboats, which have about 15,000 employees and paid $190 million in state and local taxes in 1996, have said it is business as usual while they fight to keep their licenses.

Some of those licenses are up for renewal this year, including those of the four casinos -- two each of Players International and Harrah's -- at the Riverport Center in Maryland Heights. In fact, any casino that opened in 1996 or 1997 faces relicensing procedures this year.

All casinos are subject to relicensing annually during the first two years of operation and every two years after that. The Gaming Commission could not immediately say how boats in moats would fare in seeking relicensing in light of the court ruling.

At Maryland Heights, the four casinos are topped by a neon-wrapped dome visible from busy Interstate 70, and are in a floodplain with piped-in water from the nearby Missouri River.

The Riverport operation opened last March and will be up for license renewal in March or April.

The commission has scheduled a meeting Friday. No agenda has been made available, but the boat-in-a-moat ruling is expected to be on the agenda. The commission has said it would issue rulings and recommendations within 30 days of a hearing, which would be in time for most relicensing requests this year.

Aztar is not scheduled for relicensing until 1999. The Caruthersville operation has already twice undergone relicensing, in August 1996 and last June. The next relicensing there will be in May or June of next year.

"Aztar should have no problems when it comes time for license renewal," said Randy Asherbranner of the Missouri Riverboat Gaming Association, a group which keeps tabs on all gambling casinos in the state. "The Supreme Court shouldn't affect Aztar."

Caruthersville Mayor Rick Davis said of Aztar: "There have been no problems. We're happy that the operation is within the confines of the Supreme Court ruling."

The relicensing procedure is much like the original licensing investigation, said Harold Bailey of the St. Louis office of the Missouri Gaming Commission.

"Actually it's an abbreviated procedure of the original investigation," said Bailey. That includes checks of tax release forms, contacts with city officials, and the gaming operators.