Casino puts $5 million into ballot campaign

ROCKAWAY BEACH, Mo. -- With entertainment and a free catfish dinner, proponents of allowing casino gambling in this southwest Missouri town are launching a campaign this weekend to get the matter on the statewide ballot next November.

Officials in Rockaway Beach have already picked a preferred developer -- Minneapolis-based Southwest Casino and Hotel Corp. -- to build a casino on Lake Taneycomo. But the Missouri Constitution restricts casinos to the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and would have to be amended to permit gambling on any other waterway.

An estimated 184,000 signatures must be placed on petitions to put a proposed constitutional amendment on a statewide ballot. Proponents are aiming for the November 2004 ballot and would have to collect the signatures by next May.

Southwest Casino and Hotel Corp. has set aside $5 million to fund the signature drive, said Southwest president Jim Druck. A kickoff event is set for today, with entertainment, free food and petitions for those who are ready to sign.

The casino effort is backed by Rockaway Beach officials who see gambling as the best hope for reviving the rundown former resort community, which began suffering after Table Rock Lake was built in the late 1950s. Cold water flows from Table Rock Lake into Lake Taneycomo, keeping its year-round temperature at 50 degrees -- good for fishing but too cold for swimming.

"This is not just about making noise or making waves," said Chuck Walters, a Rockaway Beach marina owner who is among the residents organizing the casino effort. "Rockaway must do what is best for Rockaway."

Walters said gambling would benefit not just the town, but Taney County and the entire state through the generation of gambling-tax revenues.

Rockaway Beach, population 275, has also suffered from the development of the music and family-entertainment industries in Branson, about 15 miles to the east.

Branson officials and business owners have gone on record several times opposing the gambling effort. They contend that having a casino in Taney County would taint the wholesome image that helps attract 7 million visitors to Branson each year.

"Gambling would completely and totally turn around our whole tourism economy, and we don't have any other lifeblood," said Branson Mayor Lou Schaefer.

But some in Branson disagree. Cindi Barr, who owns a company that books individual and group trips to Branson, believes that the presence of a casino in Rockaway Beach could actually draw more visitors to her town.

"As a tour operator, I know that a lot of people think there already is gambling here because they hear there's gambling in Missouri," Barr said. "They're shocked and somewhat disappointed that the closest casino is five hours away."

Statewide passage of the proposed constitutional amendment would be just the first hurdle for a Rockaway Beach casino. The casino still would need approval by the town's own voters and by the Missouri Gaming Commission.