Wednesday, March 12, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
Instead of a ballfield in the middle of an Iowa cornfield, the cars, pickups and minivans were lining up Tuesday in a former floodplain in suburban St. Louis for Riverport Casino Center. Still, the message was the same: Build it and they will come.
They came and just kept coming as Riverport, Missouri's newest, and at $310 million, priciest casino complex, opened for the first time.
The bumper-to-bumper procession stretched beyond the mile-long road leading to the casino and backed up traffic another mile on the Earth City Expressway in northwest St. Louis County.
Once parked, the wait didn't get any better.
Lines of would-be gamblers snaked hundreds of feet in three directions outside the brightly-lit yellow, red, purple and green casino. The only movement was the occasional VIP in a limo or Cadillac, pulling up for valet treatment.
"Very poor planning," said an agitated Jim Wolfrom of St. Ann, who by mid-evening had stood in line four hours and was still on the outside looking in. "They compare this to Las Vegas, but I've never stood in line in Vegas."
It was certainly a Vegas-like atmosphere inside. Showgirls in tight outfits and huge, feathered headdresses - "I'm giving my neck muscles a workout," showgirl Kaydi Carlisle said - posed for pictures with customers. Green laser beams darted to the beat of Elvis' "Viva, Las Vegas" on the loud - really loud - speakers. Smoke from a machine mingled with the real stuff contributed by hundreds of cigarettes.
Among those lucky enough to get in, the center got high marks.
"There's a lot of excitement in here," Patti Forrster said as she jammed one token after another into a quarter slot machine.
Her mother, Maggie Gilden, came all the way from Phoenix to visit the casino. Mrs. Gilden is a regular at Phoenix casinos, but was anxious to try Riverport.
"There's no comparison," she said. "This one's fantastic."
Riverport - a joint venture of Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and Players International Inc. - is a far cry from the original group of riverboats that came to Missouri in 1994.
The four casinos at Riverport float on two huge barges in a basin 1,000 feet off the Missouri River. The rest of the development sits on land, including a 291-room hotel, shops, restaurants, bars, entertainment areas and a child-care facility.
Casino opponents say gambling centers like Riverport and Station Casino Kansas City, a $255 million complex that opened in January, have strayed too far from the intent of the referendum passed by voters in 1992.
"The gaming industry spent $12 million promoting the idea of historic riverboats with actual cruises," said Steve Taylor, director of the St. Louis-based anti-gambling group Casino Watch. "What we now have are essentially land-based casinos."
Missouri Gaming Commission director Tom Irwin said the commission will watch closely to see how Riverport affects the St. Louis market before deciding if further licenses will be granted for the area.
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."
archive
