High-stakes relationships.

Casinos and convention centers depend on each other to attract your business.

It's a strange landscape we have built in the pursuit of fun, fantasy, and the off chance that our life might change with a roll of the dice, the click of a wheel, or a pull of the handle. A ship sinks in the desert, a volcano explodes just west of America's heartland, a pyramid rises from U.S. dust, a gigantic neon cowboy waves a perpetual howdy on a street that's always crowded. On two beaches, high-rise hotels elbow each other as they crowd their way to the surf. At their feet spread the flatlands of the great gambling halls.

And within a chip's throw of every gaming mecca lies a convention center - the distant cousin to the nuclear family of gambling tourism. Everyone knows they're related, but they just can't quite agree as to how. It's an uneasy relationship, at best. Gambling destinations are pouring millions into new or expanded convention centers. But across the years meeting planners have felt as if they've been tossed the table scraps by the surrounding hotels that would really rather keep their rooms available just in case a high roller should stumble in.

However, casino hotels are now transforming themselves into full-service resorts, competing with each other by building non-gaming-related attractions and themes - attractions that generate no direct source of revenue. All those lights and roller coasters are high overhead, and if the gamblers aren't going to help pay for them, somebody has to. Maybe convention delegates, for example.

Selling planners on sites

Turned off by the chilly shoulder of gaming destinations in the past, meeting planners might not immediately warm up to the idea of securing a date five years from now. So, even though convention and visitors bureaus and their constituent hotels might be extending a welcoming hand, experienced meeting planners could very well say, "In a pig's eye."

So gaming destinations have some selling to do. And they're doing it. The gambling factor itself is both the problem and the promise of such gaming destinations as Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast that want to develop the convention side of the business. The destinations are undeniably attractive. The weather is usually quite pleasant, and there is plenty to do that is not casino-related. And the gaming-subsidized prices are undeniably attractive.

But old habits must still be broken, and bruised memories must be forgotten. Meeting planners still feel as though they are at a distinct disadvantage in early negotiations for room blocks. As much as CVBs may point to sparkling new convention centers and say, "Y'all come," meeting planners know they could still get a different message from the hotels: "Y'all come, but don't get in the way of that guy with the cash wad over there."

"I have actually been told in so many words, 'We don't need your business,'" says Debbie Hubler, director of conventions and meetings for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Englewood, Colorado. "They don't want meeting groups taking up hotel rooms on Thursdays, Fridays, or Saturdays because that's when the hotels make their money in gaming revenue."

But the hotels' gaming revenue also plays out into advantages for meeting planners, Hubler acknowledges, so it's important to factor in the benefits of holding a meeting in a gaming destination - even if you do feel snubbed initially. Attractions, exhibit hall space, and savings opportunities can offset the inconvenience.

"Because hotels have this other source of revenue, their room rates and food and beverage prices are usually more reasonable," she says. "And you're usually not required to stay over on a Saturday night to save on airfares.

"So you have to keep that in mind and decide what's ultimately important to you," she says. While meeting planners are reporting that the gambling activity itself is not necessarily the decision maker when planning a conference in a gaming destination, national trends are pointing to increased acceptance of gambling among Americans. A 1996 survey by Yankelovich Partners, Inc., Stamford, Connecticut, revealed that casino entertainment is "acceptable" by 90 percent of Americans; 61 percent described it as acceptable for everyone. Only 9 percent said it wasn't acceptable for anyone. More than half (55 percent) said they would welcome casinos in their own community.

"It's an acceptable form of entertainment," says Bill Sittman, executive vice president of the American Gaming Association, Washington, D.C. "Most people go have a little dinner, play the machines, play cards, see a show, and then go back to the room. Gaming has become a multifaceted source of entertainment."

Investing in meetings business

On the business side, Fortune magazine placed one of gaming's top corporations, Mirage Resorts, Inc., and Harrah's Entertainment as among the top 20 most admired U.S. companies. And stocks in the publicly held gaming industry companies are thriving.

These encouraging facts may not influence meeting registration directly (although Kati Schnell, director of meetings for the American Association of Airport Executives, Alexandria, Virginia, says that registration was up 33 percent for AAAE's 1996 convention in Las Vegas), but the ripple effects certainly benefit the convention business.

According to the American Gaming Association, casino-related tax revenues play an important role in convention center funding. Crime in gaming destinations is lower than in other major convention destinations. And casinos drive major infrastructure capital investments that can change the look of an entire city, making the chore of getting around easier, for everyone - gambler and convention-goer alike.

Gulf Coast growth. The Mississippi Gulf Coast (which includes Gulf Port and Biloxi), for instance, is enjoying a major renaissance that includes expanding its Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center, increasing room availability, expanding air service, and developing the rest of the region to further support new business, new visitors, and new residents that will serve the booming business. According to the Grand Casino, which has two casino hotels in the Mississippi Gulf Coast area, the region has 12 casinos, each investing an average of $85 million in the state - and paying in 1994 more than $85 million in state, city, and county taxes. In 1993, U.S. News & World Report ranked Mississippi number one for economic recovery due to gaming.

What does this mean to meeting planners? Some of those dollars are being thrown into the Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center, nearly doubling its capacity in a major expansion project.

"It currently offers 100,000 square feet and is under construction for 80,000 more," says Stephen B. Richer, executive director of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We are being very aggressive in marketing to conventions and trade shows. Our slogan is 'Where the New South Meets,' and we've positioned ourselves as the most affordable of the country's 100 largest destinations."

Atlantic City expansion. In Atlantic City, New Jersey, a similar revitalization reflects an investment of more than $7 billion in new starts or improvement projects. More than 12,000 new casino hotel rooms are either under construction or planned, the airport has been expanded, and a grand new boulevard entrance is being created.

And of course, a new $268 million convention center is due to be opened in May 1997. Billed by the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority as "America's New Northeast Business Address," it will feature 500,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit space - more space on one floor than any center from Atlanta to Boston. The new center will be joined with a new Doubletree Hotel on one side and the railroad terminal on the other.

While Atlantic City boasts the fact that it is within a day's drive of a third of the U.S. population, no one argues that the last hour on the Atlantic City Expressway isn't a tedious schlep. Consequently, officials are hoping that the more than 12,000 new hotel rooms will prompt more plane seats to be taken up by more visitors landing at the somewhat grandiosely named Atlantic City International Airport. But what comes first, the rooms or the flights?

"We're in a chicken-and-egg situation," says Noreen Bodman, vice president of communications for the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority. "One of the problems that we've had in getting more air service has been the lack of hotel rooms. Now that we're tripling our hotel inventory within five years, perhaps the flights will come, too."

Las Vegas enlargement. Not to be outdone as a major meeting destination is Las Vegas, which is planning its own significant convention center expansion. The first expansion since 1991, the Las Vegas Convention Center will grow from 1.3 million square feet to more than 1.6 million square feet. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority positions the destination as the premier meeting and convention venue in the world and attributes the jackpot of more than $11.6 billion of non-gam-ing revenue in the 1990s directly to the meeting side of its hospitality economy.

So it comes as a surprise to LVCVA Vice President of Marketing Rossi Ralenkotter that meeting planners feel that they aren't welcomed with entirely open arms, particularly by casino hotels.

"The value of conventions has always been recognized by hotels," he says. "Conventions drive business that can be booked years in advance. And we know that if a person has fun here as a delegate, he'll come back as tourist. The convention and meeting business is very important to our future." Still, he concedes: "Ideally, the Sunday through Thursday pattern is the best meeting time for us."

Somehow the hotels just aren't getting the message, says Steve Pitt, executive director of the National Automobile Dealers Association, McLean, Virginia, which returns to Las Vegas every other year. In a region that's famous for risk taking, he runs into hotels that hedge their bets. And so, then, must he.

"The hardest problem is getting a commitment from hotels," he says. "When we approach hotels, ready to make a commitment to fill the rooms, we want the hotels to make the commitment back. But instead, we have to reserve twice the number of rooms we think we'll need because the hotels aren't willing to make that commitment."

But, he says, Las Vegas will always be a destination for his group. Risk takers by nature, his car-dealer membership comes ready to have a good time. And he is looking forward to the opening of the new $50 million Star Trek-themed wing at the Las Vegas Hilton, which is adjacent to the convention center. Star Trek: The Experience, however, was not devised to entertain convention-goers, but to attract tourists from the Strip.

"Because we're off the Strip, We need to install an attraction to draw the leisure guests to our hotel," says Las Vegas Hilton's Michael Gasta, vice. president of sales. It also has an investment exposure to cover. This Hilton property has more than 3,000 rooms, with another 15,000 rooms opening in the next two years. The leisure market, he says, has created the booming demand for whiz-bang attractions that maybe take them out of the casinos for a while. Which is okay with him, as long as they're headed off the Strip toward the Star Trek exhibit.

But Gasta is philosophical about what he's up against. It's not about competing for gamblers' dollars, or even tourists' dollars, for that matter. It's about competing for attention. And in the final analysis, who cares where the dollars come from?

"These hotels are building these attractions to attract the leisure guest because everyone else is doing it," says Gasta. "But at what point do we reach the saturation point in the leisure market?

"All the major hotels are realizing that they have to diversify their market mix. The convention attendee is a great source of business, with big expense accounts," he says. This attitude, however healthy and future-focused, is a distinct departure from the hotels' traditional gaming strategy, Gasta admits.

"The owners of yesteryear are probably rolling in their graves," he says. "The rule of thumb used to be to the room as ugly as they could to the guests in the casinos. Now all our priorities have changed. We still make plenty of casino-related revenue, but we're not asking our guests to spend the entire time there."

So as new growth reflects a maturing gaming industry, hotels and CVBs are learning to find the appropriate mix of both tourism and convention business. The prospects for the future are encouraging. With all the heavy capital investment to attract meetings, the destinations have one very important priority in common with you: You both want a full house.

RELATED ARTICLE: Sharing the Rewards of Lady Luck

As with an individual, so with an industry. Once it achieves maturity, it begins to look around to see where it might be able to share its good fortune. The gaming industry is no different, with many examples of employees volunteering in community and charity organizations with corporate support and endorsement. So Lyle Berman, founder and chief executive officer of Grand Casinos, has plenty of company when he works to promote good citizenship among casinos within their communities.

"It's important to be a good neighbor and to give back to the community as much as we can," says Jean Herbert-Wiesenburg, director of public relations for the Mississippi Gulf Coast's Grand Casinos in Gulf Port and Biloxi. "Mr. Berman made a commitment that when we came to the. Coast, we would contribute to the community in every way we can."

Herbert-Wiesenburg says that the Grand Casinos' charity efforts take many forms, from holiday gift-giving in depressed communities in the region to participating in Christmas in April, when the employees take a day to help refurbish rundown homes, to supporting a Muscular Dystrophy telethon.

But it's hard to beat the evening in March 1996 when the Russian St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra came to town. The Grand Casino in Biloxi donated its theater for the night, reconfigured the seating to theater style, and packed in an audience of 1,700 who paid between $500 and $1,000, each to hear the symphony play during the black-tie gala event.

"I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it," says Herbert-Wiesenburg of the entire experience, which spanned several days before and after the big concert. "It was a true labor of love for everyone in the community. The merchants helped with flowers and decorations. Wal-Mart gave each of the 85 musicians gift certificates. McDonald's fed them. They were on the news for days around here."

On the actual day of the concert, Herbert-Wiesenburg recalls that the seats were sold out and people were begging for seats in the back or on the balcony.

And the $70,000 in proceeds? It went to support the restoration of the local Saenger Theater, which was built in the late 1920s and had fallen into disrepair. Thanks to the Grand Casino and the residents along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, it's on its way to a new life again.

"We made that commitment to improve the quality of life wherever we can," says Herbert-Wiesenburg. "Every casino is involved in one aspect or another. It solidifies the commitment between us and the people who live in our community."

As for the 85 Russian musicians: "They'll never forget the Mississippi Gulf Coast, that's for sure," she says.

Martha I. Finney is a freelance writer based in Annapolis, Maryland.