THE CITY MAKES A DECISION ON A GAMING COMPANY

City council members in Cape Girardeau have done a commendable and thoughtful job in analyzing a difficult development proposal and coming up with a recommendation of a riverboat gambling vendor. From two worthy plans offered by a pair of first-rate companies, the council on Monday night chose the Boyd Gaming Corp. to endorse for licensure by the Missouri Gaming Commission. We look forward now to seeing this development progress and ultimately bear fruit with economic opportunities for the community and region.

Council members will likely confess the riverboat gambling decision was like few others they have made. For one thing, riverboat gambling remains an untried concept in Missouri, so the council benefited from few reliable guidelines in their deliberations. For another, the issue took on a high profile uncharacteristic of most council matters; in fact, interests competing for the endorsement used local advertising and civic club appearances to supply a campaign demeanor to the consideration, though only seven people had votes that ultimately counted. Finally, economic development is seldom limited to a single agent, as state law required in this case, and the council is rarely put in a position of deciding who can make money in these corporate boundaries and who can't.

With those factors in place, the council and the city staff went about their work diligently: considering the options, asking good questions and guarding the interests of their constituents while remaining fair to the developers. Council members took enough time to make a careful decision, yet not so much time that the developers became frustrated or disinterested. In concert and individually, members of the municipal government used their positions as extensions of the public they serve and learned a great deal about the riverboat gambling industry. Ultimately, a consensus was formed and the much-feared tie vote -- one that would have nullified the local negotiations and needlessly shifted the Cape Girardeau decision to the state commission -- never materialized.

We found in the discussion some other positive things to hang on to. Certainly, the most appealing part of the Lady Luck proposal was the opportunity it offered for turning around South Cape Girardeau. Construction of a new river bridge in the coming years might also help to stimulate commercial and other development in that area. The city council would do well to consider tagging a portion of the expected gambling revenues for the benefit of South Cape Girardeau neighborhoods. This seems a proper gesture, given the ideas inspired by the recent debate.

Initially, there will be one riverboat gambling license issued for Cape Girardeau. (That assumes the state commission doesn't shut out this city; we find that unlikely.) Eventually, more licenses are possible. While it is not our desire for Cape Girardeau to be defined as a gambling community, we would be anxious to see the market decide to what extent these economic possibilities can be played out. If Lady Luck is interested in Cape Girardeau now, perhaps the company will also be interested down the road. We don't believe anything has been done in the recent discussions that would sour the relationship between the city and the company. And future negotiations might allow Lady Luck to work a more mutually beneficial agreement with Missouri Dry Dock, a long-time employer in the area, which was threatened by their current plans.

We are late converts to the riverboat gambling movement, having endorsed the local option only after much deliberation. Our misgivings have been detailed in this space in the past, as have our hopes for the future of this community. Our appeal in this development process was that Cape Girardeau provide the model for communities where riverboat gambling enterprises locate, lending safeguards for the citizens while supplying a legal business sufficient space and incentive to operate. With the endorsement process completed by the city council, we think a good step has been taken in that direction.