RIVERPORT CASINO 10TH TO OPEN IN MISSOURI

Don't look for water or gangplanks when you enter Riverport Casino Center, home to four gambling casinos, a 291-room hotel, entertainment lounge, 450-seat restaurant and a child-care facility at Maryland Heights.

The casinos are constructed on barges that float in a basin adjacent to the Missouri River, but visitors to the glitzy new riverboat entertainment center will never know the difference when they leave the land-based pavilion and enter one of the four casinos.

Riverport Casino, a dual venture of Harrah's Entertainment Inc. of Memphis, Tenn., and Players International Inc., headquartered in Atlantic City, N.J., opened Tuesday. The Missouri Gaming Commission conducted a two-day inspection tour prior to the opening of state's 10th gambling complex.

The gaming commission gave preliminary approval to the complex Monday morning and conducted a mock cruise Monday afternoon. The complex received its license Tuesday morning, and officially opened about 6 p.m.

With four casinos featuring 2,460 slot machines and 160 table games, the $310 million Riverport project is the region's largest gambling complex and one of the biggest in the nation. By contrast, investment in the President Casino on the Admiral in St. Louis amounted to about $60 million when it opened in June of 1994.

The Riverport complex consists fo more than 370,000 square feet -- 120,000 square feet of casino space, and 250,000 square feet of land-based development and employs more than 3,000 workers.

The new complex, said Larry Buck. general manager of Players International's two casinos at Riverport, will raise the level of competition in the Midwest, especially in the St. Louis area. Players operates two of the four casinos -- Players Kokomo Casino and Grand Cayman casino.

Harrah's Entertainment, which operates the other two casinos -- Harrah's Mardi Gras and Harrah's Easy Street -- are partners in the venture.

Gaming Commission officials say there is concern about market saturation in St. Louis. Just miles away from the Riverport Complex in St. Charles is Station Casino St. Charles, which consists of two casinos.

Commission director Tom Irwin says the commission will monitor the Riverport facility pretty closely before licensing another casino in St. Louis.

In addition to a total of seven Missouri casinos in the St. Louis area, two more are located just across the Mississippi River in Illinois at Alton and East St. Louis.

Western Missouri recently added a giant of its own in January with the $255 million Station Casino Kansas City.

The sprawling Riverport complex is a far cry from the area's other casinos. The Admiral, the Casino Queen in East St. Louis and the Alton Belle are all actual riverboats. The Casino St. Charles consists of two casinos, one on a riverboat, the other on a barge.

Riverport more closely resembles a land-based casino than a riverboat. Billboards tout it as being "Just like Las Vegas, but with humidity."

Inside the pavilion area is a "streetscape" featuring three-story facades reminiscent of Missouri in the mid-19th century. The pavilion is open to anyone, whether they intend to gamble or not, and includes shops, restaurants, bars and the 10,000 square-foot child care center.

Only the casinos themselves are on water, sitting on huge barges in a basin built about 1,000 feet off the Missouri River.

In just over three years, the face of gambling has already changed from small, cruising riverboats to glitzy, Las Vegas-style casinos that never leave dock. And if casino operators get their way, the $500 loss limit will soon be a thing of the past. A bill has been introduced in the Missouri General Assembly to do away with the limit.

Two area legislators have indicated they are against abandoning the limit.

"It's not what the voters voted for," said Rep. Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau. Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, agrees.

The state's casino complexes have created nearly 15,000 jobs, and last year alone generated nearly $100 million for Missouri schools and more than $40 million for the towns and cities in which they are located.