GAMBLING VOTE PROMPTS `GOLD RUSH'

In a modern, Midwestern equivalent to a gold rush, businesses and individuals are clamoring to capitalize on the possibility of riverboat gambling in Cape Girardeau.

Voters here next week will consider whether to approve riverboat casinos in the city.

Evelyn Boardman, who was hired by a Las Vegas gaming company interested in bringing a riverboat to Cape Girardeau, said Monday she's received 86 riverboat job applications and fielded more than 50 inquiries regarding the availability of property in the city's downtown business district.

"I would venture to say that there's not a building in the immediate downtown area that does not have a serious interested party or an option on it right now," Boardman said.

DuQuoin, Ill., Paducah, Ky., Sikeston and St. Louis, are just some of the cities from which business owners are interested in moving their firms to downtown Cape Girardeau, she said.

At the same time, property owners throughout the city have contacted Boardman with descriptions of sites available for development.

"People are looking for property," she said, "and people are wanting to sell property not necessarily in the downtown area, but from across town as well."

Not only are out-of-town businesses casting an anxious eye toward Cape Girardeau, many local businesses also eagerly await the results of the June 8 election.

Dennis "Doc" Cain, who owns Port Cape restaurant and bar in downtown Cape Girardeau and Port Cape West at West Park Mall, said riverboat gambling will be a boon for local businesses.

"Any time you can generate that type of influx of people, it's got to have a positive effect on business," Cain said. "The more people we can get into our community, and these people are people who have available income, it's going to help."

Boardman's employer, the Boyd Group, has predicted a riverboat would attract one million admissions annually. The gaming company also has promised 800 direct jobs on the riverboat and has predicted the operation would generate the same number of "secondary" or indirect jobs.

Cain said the boost in employment will mean an expanded base of clients from among the city's residents.

He said some of the secondary employees likely will be Port Cape workers. "We certainly will have to increase our staff somewhat," Cain said. "I think the better opportunities you can offer people for employment, it comes right back to the community."

Pete Poe, manager of Cape Girardeau's Drury Lodge and Cape Budget Inn, said he believes riverboat gambling will boost the city's motel business.

"From an economic standpoint, it can't be anything but beneficial for the city," Poe said of riverboat gambling. "It certainly will help the hospitality business."

Mid-America Hotels, which owns the Drury Lodge and Budget Inn, has planned a new Drury Inn on the site of Budget Inn.

Poe said he would welcome additional competition from a potential downtown motel to serve riverboat customers, provided there are sufficient visitors to justify the additional motel rooms.

"It would be a concern, but if the influx of visitors outnumbers the available hotel rooms, certainly we would welcome additional rooms," Poe said.

"But I don't feel that they're going to come rushing right in to build a hotel until they know the level of business they'll reach."

Among the business owners and groups who have endorsed riverboat gambling and lauded its economic benefits are the Downtown Redevelopment Corp., Chamber of Commerce, Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Southeast Missouri Homebuilders Association.

But not everyone believes all retailers will benefit from riverboat gambling. Tony Stephens, manager of West Park Mall in Cape Girardeau, said restaurants, night clubs and motels have the most to gain, while many retail stores likely will see little appreciable effect from gaming.

"I think there will be some businesses that it will aid," Stephens said. "As far as it aiding all businesses, I don't think so."

Stephens said the mall in Alton, Ill., has experienced no measurable increase in retail sales since the arrival of the Alton Belle riverboat casino in September 1991.

"The mall there, after the first year, found that riverboat gambling contributed virtually nothing to their business," he said. "There was no impact at all.

"I think it will help restaurant businesses and night club businesses," Stephen added, "but as far as soft goods businesses clothing and jewelry I don't think it will have a big impact."

Stephens, who said he's "not real comfortable with the moral issue" of legalized gambling, questioned whether visitors to a riverboat would even be interested in shopping throughout the city.

"If people are going to shop, they're going to come to the mall," he said. "I question, however, whether people with a primary interest in gambling will want to shop."

And with an on-board restaurant and bar, would riverboat visitors patronize area restaurants and clubs? Cain said the added tourists would more than offset the added competition.

"Just in the last two or three years, we've had a tremendous amount of restaurants open in the community," Cain said. "The only difference now is that this will bring a clientele with it. That can only increase my business."

Apparently, Cain isn't alone in his thinking.

Boardman said that since May 10, she has fielded 26 inquiries regarding apartments for rent in downtown Cape, and 27 into the availability of property to buy or lease.

"I've also had companies with horse-drawn carriages ask about the riverboat and inquiries from entertainment providers, such as bands," she said. "It's quite interesting to see all these people clamoring for jobs and property in downtown Cape."