Missouri Gaming Commission told new casino could doom President

Jim Salter

Wednesday, June 28, 2000 | 1:53 a.m.

ST. LOUIS - The President Casino on the Admiral in downtown St. Louis has survived a flood, a collision with a barge, even a less than inviting location. But its leaders told the Missouri Gaming Commission Wednesday that it won't survive additional competition.

"There is no room in this market for another casino," Jim Zweifel, the President's vice president, told commissioners meeting in St. Louis Wednesday in an auditorium filled with about 250 people, seemingly evenly split between supporters and opponents of another casino.

The commission is considering allowing a new gambling complex in north St. Louis County, south St. Louis County or nearby Jefferson County. No date for a decision has been set.

A leading contender is Ameristar Casinos, which wants to build on the Mississippi River in Lemay, about nine miles south of where the President sits beneath the Gateway Arch.

Zweifel estimated the Lemay casino would take away 40 percent of the President's customers. As a result, revenues now totaling about $60 million annually would fall to about $35 million and create a huge shortfall.

"We would have no option, no alternative, except to close our casino," Zweifel said.

The President employs about 800 people, more than half of them minorities, St. Louis comptroller Darlene Green told the commission. The facility generates about $7 million annually in local taxes.

"The President, as much as any single employer, contributed to the revitalization of downtown St. Louis," Green said.

Officials with the other casino companies said their facilities would not sink the President. Isle of Capri is looking at two sites - one near the Jefferson Barracks bridge in south St. Louis County and one in the Jefferson County town of Kimmswick. Chain of Rocks J.V. wants to build a casino in north St. Louis County.

Bob Burns, who heads the group Lemay on the Move, which supports the Ameristar project, said the South County area needs the jobs and the tax revenue the casino would bring. The median income in Lemay is about $13,000, he said.

"Competition is good," Burns said. "If it weren't, Las Vegas would have only one casino."

St. Louis County councilman Jeff Wagener, whose district includes Lemay, said the President has only itself to blame if it can't handle the competition.

The St. Louis area already has five casino complexes - in St. Charles, Maryland Heights, East St. Louis, Ill., Alton, Ill., and the President.

The competition is particularly tough on the President. The Casino Queen in East St. Louis sits directly across the Mississippi River, unburdened by Missouri's $500 loss limit. Downtown St. Louis bustles during the day, but most businesses and restaurants close at night, discouraging potential President customers.

The Mississippi itself has caused its share of problems for the President. In 1995, soon after the casino opened, a flood forced it to close for nearly six weeks. Two years later, a runaway barge slammed into the permanently docked riverboat. No one was killed, but it was nearly a month before the casino reopened.

Moral concerns were also raised about a casino in Lemay. Sister Ruth Speh said the Ameristar casino would be 500 yards from the "Mother House" of the School Sisters of Notre Dame - site of a school and religious facilities. She presented a petition with 5,300 signatures opposing the casino.