LONG-TERM INTERESTS OF GAMBLING BOATS A BIG CONSIDERATION

With the recent flurry of announcements about Lady Luck Gaming Corp.'s application for a Missouri Gaming Commission license, speculation mounted that a horse race was under way between riverboat gambling plans in Scott City and Cape Girardeau. In fact, there may not even be a lineup at the starting gate.

Ever since Lady Luck and Boyd Gaming Corp. made their respective plans for riverboat casinos in Scott City and Cape Girardeau, there have been plenty of questions about two riverboats so close together. An hour and a half either up or down the Mississippi River, riverboats already are operating. The question that is often asked by gambling companies, gamblers and the gaming commission is simple: How many riverboats can expect to make a go of it?

For the gaming commission, this has been a serious question. As the commission has reviewed and approved licenses, it also has adopted an operating philosophy that too many boats will spoil the success of riverboat gambling. The commissioners have had only to look elsewhere in the country where unlimited river gambling has resulted in bankruptcy, failure and the disappearance of what many thought was a thriving industry with no limits.

There are other factors, however, that may prove to be more important in the long run. As gambling companies make marriages with river towns for floating casinos, some towns are making every effort to ensure that facilities and municipal infrastructure will be up to par. That is certainly the case in Cape Girardeau, where city officials are continuing to work out all the details of a complex contract with Boyd Gaming that will give the city certain guarantees. In Scott City, there appears to be less assurance that Lady Luck will have to spend very much of its own money to start up a gambling riverboat. It might not even have to bear the expense of a new boat, if it elects to bring an already-built boat from another location that has been unsuccessful.

These are the same considerations the state's gaming commission will take up when it gets to either the Lady Luck or still-to-be-filed Boyd Gaming applications for Scott City and Cape Girardeau. There is very little reason to expect the commission to approve both plans for boats only a few miles apart in a largely rural area. Even urban areas with a huge potential for gambling customers are proving to be limited in their ability to sustain more than several riverboat casinos.

Another consideration that could have a long-term bearing on the situation is the financial soundness of the proposals. Boyd Gaming's parent company in Las Vegas is backing the proposal in Cape Girardeau. Lady Luck's parent organization, on the other hand, is leaving the financial burden and commitments up to the operating division set up to run casinos in Missouri.

When -- and if -- Cape Girardeau or Scott City will have a gambling riverboat is still anyone's guess. But it is clear the gaming commission is intent on protecting both the gamblers and the owners of the floating casinos.