Gaming briefs for July 7, 2003

Monday, July 7, 2003 | 9:18 a.m.

Operator restating results

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas -- Kerzner International Ltd., the owner of the Atlantis casino resort in the Bahamas, plans to restate three years of results for one of its units because of changes to its accounting.

Kerzner will restate the results of its Kerzner International North America Inc. unit for 2000, 2001, and 2002, the company said last week in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Kerzner is restating the results because of accounting changes at Trading Cove Associates, a Connecticut general partnership in which Kerzner and Waterford Gaming LLC are each 50 percent general partners, according to the filing. The accounting adjustments are related to timing of recognition of certain liabilities owed to Kerzner, Waterford and their affiliates.

The Paradise Island, Bahamas-based company expects the unit's restatement to be completed during the third quarter.

Business owners fighting plan

BRANSON, Mo. -- A group of Branson-area business owners voted to oppose any effort to build a casino in the Tri-Lakes Area.

Members of the Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau contend tourists come to southwest Missouri to get away from casinos and the crowds they attract. The move to oppose a casino puts the business owners at odds with other business owners and residents in Rockaway Beach, about 10 miles from Branson.

City leaders there have taken the first step toward asking voters statewide to allow a floating casino on the town's waterfront on Lake Taneycomo.

Chamber members said their vote to oppose gambling on Table Rock, Taneycomo and Bull Shoal lakes was necessary to protect their livelihood.

"Branson is family friendly, wholesome entertainment. It's based on Christian values and patriotic themes, and we believe gambling doesn't represent those values," Ross Summers, chamber executive vice president, said.

It's a position Denny Howard, a businessman and alderman in Rockaway Beach, does not accept.

"This town is gradually going down, down, down, and we need to do something to bring it back," Howard said.

Rockaway Beach city leaders have sent a petition to the attorney general and secretary of state seeking to put a proposed amendment to the Missouri Constitution before voters in November 2004.

Casinos are now permitted only on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, so the constitution would have to be amended to allow a casino on the White River inside the Rockaway Beach city limits.