GAMBLING REPRESENTATIVE VIEWS VOTE

It's back to the planning board for many riverboat gambling casino operations interested in locating in Missouri, following a narrow defeat Tuesday of a riverboat gambling amendment in the state.

"The vote came as a surprise to us," said Maunty C. Collins, senior vice president and director of operations for the central region for Boyd Gaming, headquartered in Las Vegas. "We will be taking a look at our options."

Boyd Gaming, which is planning riverboat casinos in Kansas City and Cape Girardeau, will be meeting with architects and planners at Kansas City Friday and Cape Girardeau Saturday.

"More than 95 percent of our plans at both sites are on paper," said Collins, who was a guest speaker at the 1994 Business Conference held Wednesday on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University campus. "We're looking at some large developments in the state. We already own a lot of property in Cape Girardeau."

Amendment 3, defeated by a margin of just 1,261 votes out of more than a million cast -- 528,072 to 526,811 -- was to authorize games of chance, including slot machines, on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

In a measure approve in 1992, voters approved, according to the Missouri Supreme Court, only "games of skill" -- such as card games -- on the boats.

That's why Collins said the issue is not yet over.

"We're still allowed to place a riverboat casino here and Kansas City, but it may not be as profitable," he said. "The owners would be gambling on financial success."

Backers of the proposal blamed a lower-than-usual voter turnout on inclement weather -- wind, rain and hail -- and are expected to seek another vote, as early as August, or no later than November.

"Meanwhile, we'll be looking at two big questions," said Collins. "`Do people like to play the card games?' and `Can we make a profit.' As a general rule, slots produce 65 percent of a casino's revenue."

Collins, who is overseeing Boyd operations at Tunica and Philadelphia, Miss., was in Cape Girardeau Wednesday to discuss "River Boat -- Tourism and Development" at the annual business conference, sponsored by the university's Donald L. Harrison College of Business and the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's University Relations Committee.

"Our projections before we ever decided to look at the Cape Girardeau area were that we could attract visitors from a 200-mile area," said Collins.

The surveys showed that about 70 percent of the visitors would be from the 200-mile range, with about 30 percent from closer regions. That would mean that as many as 550,000 to 700,000 persons would be from outside the immediate area.

The Boyd marketing plan consists of five points, said Collins.

"Direct mail is a big part of our marketing plan now and would be from Cape Girardeau," he said. "We already have a data bass of more than a half-million people from the Midwest who visit our casinos in Vegas. We would direct our marketing to them."

In the meantime, it doesn't take long to build up a list of people who visit a local casino, said Collins.

Other means of marketing include broadcast and print media advertising and casino representative programs.

"We send casino reps to various areas to talk with people and invite them to visit our facilities," said Collins. Completing Boyd Gaming's five-point marketing plan is the development of a bus tour program, designed to bring people into the area."

Collins, in answer to questions from his audience, also discussed jobs and purchasing.

"We have sponsored seminars concerning jobs and vendors here," he said. "We had good attendance at these seminars and have already received a number of job applications."

He said that as many as 95 percent of the approximately 800 jobs on the riverboat would be filled by area residents.

"We will send in a dozen people from outside the area," said Collins. "And there are a few people from this area who are currently working for Boyd in Vegas that have indicate they would like to return to this area. But the majority of jobs will be filled locally."

Collins added that the company would spend more than $10 million annually on local purchases -- including food and supplies.