Tuesday, March 11, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
The newest and most expensive casino in the Midwest was scheduled to open Tuesday night, hours after the Missouri Gaming Commission issued a license to Riverport Casino Center in suburban St. Louis.
Riverport, a joint venture by Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and Players International Inc., actually has four casinos - two operated by each company. The sprawling complex includes shops, restaurants, bars, nightly entertainment, a child-care center and a 291-room hotel, all under bright lights and glitz that seem more appropriate for Las Vegas than the Midwest.
That's no accident, said Vern Jennings, general manager of Riverport.
Riverport was originally scheduled to be a relatively small-scale, $60 million development, Jennings said. When the project hit a snag three years ago, Harrah's officials used the lull to poll St. Louis area gamblers on what they wanted.
"What we kept hearing was, 'We really would prefer something like Las Vegas,"' Jennings said.
Officials involved with Riverport admit a Vegas-style casino is a far cry from what was originally envisioned when Missourians approved riverboat gambling in 1992.
"It is, I would think, a larger facility than voters in Missouri ever imagined," said Larry Buck, general manager of the Players casinos.
And that's the problem, said Steve Taylor of the St. Louis-based anti-gambling group Casino Watch.
"The gaming industry spent $12 million promoting the idea of historic riverboats with actual cruises," Taylor said. "What we now have are essentially land-based casinos."
The opening of Riverport comes less than two months after the opening of a similar giant in western Missouri, Station Casino Kansas City. Like Riverport, Station offers a massive land-based entertainment complex adjoining its two casinos.
"The days of just building a boat are over," Buck said.
At Riverport, only the gambling areas themselves are actually on water. And even that irks critics. The casinos are on two barges in a basin built about 1,000 feet off the main channel of the Missouri River.
Jennings said the basin was built to avoid potential environmental conflicts and also to keep the casino out of the flood plain.
State Rep. Todd Akin, R-St. Louis, filed suit, claiming the casino in a basin violated the Missouri Constitution. A judge disagreed. Akin has appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court.
With four casinos featuring 2,460 slot machines and 160 table games, the $310 million Riverport project is by far 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 amounts to about $60 million.
Craig Travers, general manager of the Casino Queen in nearby East St. Louis, Ill., said he expects Riverport to initially hurt the area's other casinos. Including the Casino Queen and the Alton Belle in Alton, Ill., Riverport is the St. Louis area's fifth casino.
"Everybody wants to see what the new kid looks like," Travers said. "Whether they'll continue to go there, that's up to the customer."
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