SCOTT CITY HEARS GAMBLING BIDS

SCOTT CITY -- After being turned down in Cape Girardeau on March 8, Lady Luck packed up and moved south.

Monday night, the Las Vegas-based gambling company made a $63.2 million, three-phase pitch to the Scott City Council to put a boat at the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority.

A second company, The Royal Casino Group Inc., headquartered in Calabasas, Calif., made a preliminary offer to the city of $32.5 million gambling boat and facility.

Lady Luck Scott City, Inc., a subsidiary of the Lady Luck Gaming Corporation, proposed a hotel/entertainment center and casino located on a 26-acre site at the port authority. The option on the land Lady Luck proposes using is currently held by Casino Magic, a gambling company that expressed an interest in a Scott City facility before Scott County voters defeated a riverboat gambling issue on the Nov. 2 ballot.

The Scott City Council voted in early February to place the issue on the April 5 ballot for approval by city voters.

If approved, Scott City will have to annex the land along Main Street between the city limits and the Mississippi River.

The Lady Luck development is expected to add more than $3 million to Scott City's annual budget, which last year totaled $1.2 million, with debt retirement figured in. The facility could also add up to 1,140 new jobs to the area, not to mention more than 90 full-time construction positions for about the first 30 months of operation.

Jon F. Elliott, president and chief executive officer the Royal Casino Group Inc., said his company was prepared to offer about 600 jobs to area residents.

Elliott told the council that he and his associates have been "getting to know Scott City" over the past several days. At the beginning of his presentation, he pointed out the lack of a track at the Scott City schools, the street and sewer repair problems the city is facing and the city's overall lack of money to do anything about it.

The Royal Casino Group will make an official presentation to the council in coming weeks, Elliott said.

"We want to learn about and understand your community before we make our offer," said Elliott. "We want to make Scott City a place where your children will grow up and raise their own families, rather than leaving for another town in search of work."

Elliott said his company is also interested in whether or not Casino Magic will renew its option on the 28 acres at the port authority before it moves ahead with its proposal.

Lady Luck, on the other hand, was moving ahead at full speed.

Michael A. Hlavsa, chief financial officer for Lady Luck, flew in from Las Vegas Monday to speak to the council.

"We could begin construction as soon as Jan. 1, 1995, if you recommend our company for the Scott County gaming license to the state gaming commission," said Hlavsa. "The entire project would be completed in about three years."

The three-phase project includes a riverboat and visitors' center with an entertainment area and restaurant, a 200-room hotel, a parking lot at the gambling facility, an 18-hole golf course, an outlet mall, and a community center and library inside Scott City. The company also offered a $100,000 per year "donation" to the city, to be used at the council's discretion.

The riverboat would carry 1,500 passengers and would have about 1,000 gaming positions on two decks.

Lady Luck's facility would include 26 acres at the port. The company is proposing to extend the slackwater harbor about 600 feet to the north, placing the hotel and visitors' center at the extreme north end of the harbor.

After the presentations by both gambling companies, Scott City Mayor Larry Forhan asked that all further applications to the city be closed and presented only to the council.

"We need to get on with our business," said Forhan.

The mayor said he was overwhelmed by both offers and called the bids "tremendous opportunities" for Scott City.

Forhan also appointed council members Brenda Moyers, John Rogers Jr., Jerry Cummins and Norman Brant as members of a "Gambling Committee" to sort through and recommend an operator to the full council. The first meeting of the committee will be Tuesday at 6 p.m., when a third gaming company is expected to present its bid to the city.

Ward 4 Councilman Terry Johnston, who has voiced opposition to riverboat gambling in Scott City, asked Forhan if he could sit on the committee. The mayor refused.

In other business, the Scott City Council received word that it is in line for a $1.3 million grant from the federal Economic Development Administration to make necessary repairs to roads and streets in the Nash Road area.

"The roads out there were inadequate to begin with," said Dan Bollinger, planner in charge at the Bootheel Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission. "When the flood hit, it just tore them up. Now the roads are going to be built the way they should have been built in the first place."

Scott City has to get "its ducks in a row" by Monday to be eligible for the federal money. At Monday's meeting, the council passed a resolution to expedite the process.