THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 10, 1994 TAG: 9411100580
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
If rolling the dice becomes legal in Virginia, Hollywood Casino Corp. says that it will order the ships for its planned Hampton riverboat gambling facility from Newport News Shipbuilding.
The Dallas-based casino operator estimates that the project would be worth about $62 million for the giant Peninsula shipyard, said Eric D. Terry, Hollywood Casino director of development.
It also would be another step in Newport News Shipbuilding's drive to be less dependent on Navy ship contracts.
``We have had discussions with them about some boats, but we have no agreement,'' yard spokesman Michael Hatfield said. ``We'd be most happy to talk with them when and if they happen to be actually involved in building some boats.''
Like its option to buy the 28-acre Strawberry Banks site in Hampton, Hollywood Casino won't act on a boat order until the General Assembly legalizes riverboat gambling and Hollywood Casino gets a license. Proposed legislation calls for seven sites operating two boats each.
Del. Jerrauld Jones, D.-Norfolk, has introduced such legislation in each of the past two assembly sessions, but it has yet to pass.
Proponents are optimistic that a gaming bill will pass this year as the assembly looks for new sources of funds to pay for education and prisons. ``Because Disney was the overriding issue last year, we kind of got pushed to the background,'' Terry said.
Hollywood Casino first announced its intentions in March to invest nearly $180 million developing a riverboat gambling site at Strawberry Banks, next to I-64 at the end of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. The first phase of the project would entail the two boats, a terminal, a marketplace with restaurants and shops, a 1,500-seat amphitheater and a 1,500 car parking garage. A second phase would double the size of the garage, add more shops and a hotel.
It would employ between 2,000 and 2,500 people, becoming Hampton's largest employer.
Hollywood Casino owns and operates riverboat casinos in Aurora, Ill., and Tunica, Miss. It also owns and operates the Sands Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, N.J.
Working through the Virginia Riverboat Council, Hollywood Casino has enlisted the lobbying help of area shipyards and shipyard unions, including the United Steelworkers Local 8888, which represents thousands of blue-collar workers at Newport News Shipbuilding.
Gaming proposals include a requirement that vessels used for riverboat gambling be built in Virginia to help shipyards throughout Hampton Roads make the transition from their longtime dependence on Navy work.
Newport News Shipbuilding would get the order to build the 300-foot gambling vessels assuming the yard was ``price competitive,'' Terry said. Each boat would carry more than 1,000 people on two-hour gambling cruises.
While the order is small compared with the shipyard's anticipated year-end backlog of more than $6 billion, it could be the first of many similar orders.
Terry estimates that Virginia shipyards could wind up building up to 70 riverboats for the gambling industry during the next five years if all six states on the Atlantic seaboard that are considering riverboat gaming legalize it. Those states are North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The vast majority of riverboats used in Midwestern states where such gambling is legal are built by shipyards along the Gulf of Mexico.
KEYWORDS: NEWPORT NEWS SHIPBUILDING RIVERBOAT GAMBLING
by CNB