INQUIRY APT TO AFFECT LICENSE

Boyd Gaming Corp. vice president for development Brian Larson said the inquiry into Missouri House Speaker Bob Griffin's relationship with Boyd shouldn't have a bearing on whether the company receives a casino license from the Missouri Gaming Commission.

However, Mel Fisher, a spokesman for the Missouri Gaming Commission, said that until the investigation into Griffin is complete, the commission couldn't make a decision on Boyd Gaming's application for a casino license in Kansas City.

Boyd is expected to apply for a casino license in Cape Girardeau after it receives word on its application in Kansas City.

"We will have to determine what the facts are and what relationship all of these newspaper stories have with the application and come to some conclusion on it," Fisher said.

"The attorney general's office has already told us that the investigation is not focused on Boyd," Larson said. "We think we'll get a license regardless of how the investigation on Griffin turns out."

Larson said that after the investigation into Boyd is completed in Kansas City, he believed the application for a casino license in Cape Girardeau would be routinely granted.

"The same people are being investigated," he said. "Once we get a license in Kansas City, it should go quickly on the next application for a casino in Cape Girardeau. Hopefully this will all be cleared up in a short period of time."

Scott Holstee, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said there is no date set to conclude the investigation into Griffin's ties with Sahara Gaming Corp and Boyd Gaming.

"The investigation on Griffin began some time ago," Holstee said. "There is really no deadline to finish. When it's over, it's over."

The attorney general's office is investigating suspected financial ties between Griffin, who is a lawyer, and Boyd, which is represented by Griffin's former law firm.

Griffin, who is being investigated over his role in a dispute with the Sahara Gaming Corp. of Las Vegas, was also said to be linked to Boyd in a story that appeared in Sunday's Kansas City Star.

Boyd President Chuck Ruthe told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Monday that Griffin never represented his company. Repeated attempts by the Southeast Missourian to reach Ruthe Monday and Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Griffin, a Cameron Democrat serving his 15th year as House Speaker, is under state and federal investigations for his role in a dispute with the Sahara Gaming Corp. of Las Vegas. Griffin is attempting to place a Sahara Gaming Corp. casino riverboat in Parkville.

Griffin told Sahara in 1993 that if it didn't pay a group of his legal clients $16 million in cash or stock, Sahara would risk trouble getting a Missouri gaming license.

Griffin said he was acting as a private lawyer in the Sahara dispute and has denied any wrongdoing.

A federal grand jury has subpoenaed thousands of documents relating to Griffin, his friends and law clients.