NEW MADRID WILL ASK FOR CASINO OFFERS

NEW MADRID -- The city of New Madrid is laying out the welcome mat for casino companies looking for places to dock riverboats in Missouri.

At a special meeting of the New Madrid City Council Wednesday, council members voted unanimously to draft a letter to solicit interested casino and gambling firms to its city.

At the meeting, Gary Heisel --project coordinator of riverboat gambling sites in Scott City and Kimmswick for the Lady Luck Gaming Corporation -- told the council and area residents that now was the time to move ahead with riverboat gambling proposals.

New Madrid residents overwhelmingly approved a riverboat gambling initiative in the April 5 general election. Unlike Scott City, which also passed a riverboat gambling issue that day, New Madrid sits on the banks of the Mississippi River and has a harbor in operation.

Larry Rost, mayor of New Madrid, said the city would move ahead cautiously with any plans for riverboat gambling.

"This is all very new to us," said Rost. "We're prepared to do a lot of listening."

Heisel visited New Madrid the day after Scott City chose Lady Luck as its riverboat gambling operator.

Rost said that city officials are aware of Heisel's legion with the Las Vegas, Nevada-based gaming corporation and took his speech Wednesday with detached interest.

"We took the position that we were just going to sit there and listen, and to sort through what he was saying," said Rost. "(Heisel) wasn't really pushing his clientele, but he did mention them a few times."

Rost said the council was told that gaming corporations felt they could survive -- at least temporarily -- in an atmosphere that prohibits games of chance.

"On the day that we passed the riverboat gambling measure, the (proposed constitutional) amendment lost in the state," said Rost. "We felt like we were right back where we started, until we heard that some of the gambling firms were going ahead with plans, despite the restrictive nature of gambling in Missouri."

New Madrid is basically a farming community that lies about 50 miles south of Cape Girardeau. Major retail stores have chosen to open in nearby cities like Dexter and Sikeston, passing over the city of 3,350.

There are a few industries that have set up shops in and around New Madrid, which employs most of the population, Rost said.

"This is a pleasant place to live -- it's clean, the streets are paved and all have curbing and it's very presentable," he said. "We have a very historic community with a lot of character."

Rost and the council intends to keep the character of their city in mind when choosing a gambling operator, he said.

"It's safe to say that the city of New Madrid wants to develop a relationship with a company that can develop a facility that is appropriate for our community," Rost said. "We want the company to become part of the city; not superimpose on it. We want them to develop a plan in keeping with our historic significance and the community character."

After Heisel finished his presentation Wednesday, the council decided that they would move ahead as quickly as possible in soliciting bids for a New Madrid riverboat.

At Monday's meeting, the council plans to read and approve a letter to all the gambling companies along those lines.

Plans in Scott City are moving ahead slowly. The city is working to iron out the details of Lady Luck's proposal on the banks of the Diversion Channel.

Leah Christopher, a spokesperson for Lady Luck, said the company is "working closely with Scott City to develop the best gaming strategy for the city. We're working with city officials toward taking whatever are the next logical steps in the process."

Dan Overbey, director of the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority, said that the port has been talking to Lady Luck about placing a railroad drawbridge over the Diversion Channel, to allow its riverboat to cruise from a site on the channel just east of the Rhodes Travel Center on Nash Road to the Mississippi River.

Christopher added that Heisel was an independent contractor, hired by Lady Luck to oversee the Kimmswick and Scott City operations, and was not representing the company's interests in New Madrid.

But Jon F. Elliott, president and chief executive officer of the Royal Casino Group Inc. of Calabasas, Calif., claims that Heisel is courting New Madrid property owners before the bidding process has begun.

Royal Casinos was the other company interested in a Scott City site. Elliott has since expressed an interest in developing an operation in New Madrid.

Elliott, who cried foul when Lady Luck was allowed to amend its riverboat gambling proposal to the Scott City Council three days after the final proposals were supposed to have been submitted, again called Lady Luck's maneuvering unfair.

"If we had been awarded the Scott City site, even though we knew New Madrid would soon become available, we would not be interested in it because it's in the same market area," he said. "Having a boat in both locations is a win-win situation for the gambling company, but far less fair to either Scott City or New Madrid. They (Lady Luck) would be cannibalizing their own market."