RIVERBOAT GAMBLING: REPORT ARGUES FOR ELIMINATION OF LOSS LIMITS, CRUISE RESTRICTIONS

A dozen riverboat gambling casinos will be operating in Missouri by the end of the 1996 fiscal year in June.

None of those 12 will be in the immediate Southeast Missouri area -- Cape Girardeau or Scott City.

Station Casino, a giant gambling complex in Kansas City, is expected to open this month. A Maryland Heights gaming complex, a combined effort of Harrah's Corp. and Players International, consisting of four riverboat casino operations, will open during the first quarter of this year.

That may be it for a while.

The Missouri Riverboat Gaming Commission, which regulates the state's gambling industry, may or may not look at some proposed new sites early this year.

The general consensus is that the commission will place a casino moratorium on new casinos in the two large metropolitan areas -- Kansas City and St. Louis.

The only immediate areas under consideration could be in Central Missouri (Booneville area) and north of St. Louis near Louisiana on the Mississippi River. With Caruthersville to the south of St. Louis, it may be a long while before another site is considered between Louisiana, Mo., and Caruthersville.

The commission is not expected to discuss any new locations before February.

Meanwhile, a number of potential gaming companies -- Lady Luck Gaming, Boyd Gaming Corp., and Royal Casino Group -- are still standing by, all hopeful of consideration. Lady Luck, the only one of the three which has filed for a gaming permit with the commission, has a development agreement with Scott City, for an operation on the Diversion Channel.

Boyd has a development agreement with the City of Cape Girardeau, for a development along the Mississippi River in the downtown area, and Royal Casino has an development agreement with the city of Wyatt for a casino operation along the Mississippi River in Mississippi County.

Gaming companies have also expressed interest at Ste. Genevieve and New Madrid.

Boyd Gaming, headquartered in Las Vegas, already has one Missouri gambling operation, Sam's Town in Kansas City. Boyd also has operations at Peoria, Ill., Tunica County, Miss., and Metairie, La., near New Orleans.

Boyd, which acquired several parcels of property locally in 1994 and 1995, still maintains an office in downtown Cape Girardeau, providing employment to two persons.

Boyd officials have indicated that if the commission does "open the area" for future operations, a new feasibility study will be conducted. Things have changed since the first Boyd study in 1993.

At the time of the first Boyd study, there was no riverboat gambling in Metropolis, Ill., Caruthersville or the St. Louis area.

Meanwhile, the Missouri Riverboat Gaming Association (MRGA), is hopeful that a new bill will be introduced into the Missouri Legislature which would repeal the state's $500-per-cruise loss limit and let gamblers wager any amount they wanted aboard Missouri riverboat casinos.

A year ago, a similar Senate bill was introduced, which would also allow gamblers to board permanently docked gambling boats at any time, rather than waiting every two hours to go aboard.

"The bill died in the legislature,' said J. Michael Ryan, MRGA executive director. "We'll be asking the legislature to consider the proposal again this year."

Missouri's gaming industry growth can only be described as phenomenal during its existence the past two years, said Ryan.

But this is a time of transition for Missouri gaming, said James R. Moody, a former Missouri budget director. Moody, currently principal of James R. Moody and Associates, a Jefferson City-based government relations and public finance consulting firm, is author of "Riverboat Gaming In Missouri," a report funded by the MRGA.

The report details taxes and fees produced by the riverboats for education and the local host communities.

The report also argues for the elimination of loss limits and cruise restrictions on the state's boats.

"Missouri is the only state with loss restrictions," said Ryan. This is reflected in adjusted gross receipts (AGM) per admission.

The AGM per admission of all Missouri gambling operators average $23.82.

Illinois gaming operators average $47.10 AGM per admission, and even the two Illinois operators across the Mississippi River from Missouri in the St. Louis area, average $31.90 per AGM.

The possibility of doing away with the two-hour cruises has created some concern, because of the $2 admission charges for current boarding.

But Ryan says some type of taxing could be arranged to make up for the admission fee.