The Daily Spectrum from Saint George, Utah • 22

Page BIO -The Spectrim Money Thursday, February 13, 1997 opens amid questions ft 1 If 1 By HANS K. MEYER The Spectrum A fourth hotel and casino will join the cadre of Mesquite resorts Friday when the Holiday Inn Rancho Mesquite Casino opens its doors. It remains to be seen whether the city and its burgeoning tourism industry will support it. "We were not really sure if it was a good idea to build this facility because of our cost." said Ted Lee, owner and chief executive officer. "But we want our customer's to have a quality experience, and a hotel like this they'll only find in Las Vegas." The Holiday Inn has been open since August.

The 45.000-square foot casino grand opening is Friday. The Holiday Inn, with its name recognition and quality, attracts travelers from Interstate 15, said Jim Griffiths, director of sales for Rancho Mesquite. But the resort must draw business travelers to be profitable as well as tourists and locals. "We just have to find our niche in the market place," Griffiths said. "If all the resorts relied solely on Mesquite.

"It's all cyclical." Weir said. "We won't know until we get there." The pressure is not off now that the casino is open. "There's a lot more pressure now to make sure this works out" Lee said. "We've spent a lot of money here to come up with a good product here, and we're sure people will want to come." The casino is designed to be the friendliest place in town with the loosest slots, Lee said. Lee came up with the idea for the casino, then joined forces with Randy Miller, Richard Iannone and Richard Gonzales of the Longhorn Group to create the right atmosphere.

The atmosphere includes 40 percent nickel slots and liberal blackjack rules the Longhorn Group introduced in its casinos. Blackjack players at Rancho Mesquite can split on a second or third card and withdraw half uieir bet if they don't feel confident about winning, said Kent Howells, Rancho Mesquite gaming director. "These rules are even a little more liberal than we had in Vegas," Howells said. "It's a lot better for the players. A friendlier staff also should Mesquite, we'd all be deader than doorbells." Representatives from the city's other casinos said they welcome the competition, because they're optimistic the new addition will create more business for them all.

"Of course Holiday Inn will take some of our business away, but do we welcome it?" asked Larry Mullin. marketing director for Si Redd's Oasis. "Yes. Anything that's good for Mesquite we will support." Rancho Mesquite and Virgin River will work well together because they're alter different markets, said Mark Weir, Virgin River marketing director." Griffiths said he hopes to create goodwill with competition. "Sometimes you get into a spitting contest, but the idea should be to enhance the community for all involved," he said.

"If I bring someone here, I know darn well that I'm not going to be the only place they visit." Rancho Mesquite could be in for a struggle its first few months. Visitors to Mesquite usually drop during the winter months, and tourism doesn't pick up again until March, Mullin said. Then again, it may attract new people to I Bartender Jerry Haddon stocks glasses at the Scorpion Bar at the Rancho of the casino, and it's gratifying to see that some of them are working." The casino will employ more than 200 people to man 500 slot machines, 13 table games and five restaurants and lounges. The Tumbleweed Cafe, Wild Cactus Lounge and Scorpion Bar are Wall Street companies invest in names THURSDAY, SUNOAYX 3m hf Every Heart Royal Flush Wins A Bonus! Dollars $100 Quarters $50 Nickels $25 Every Four-of-a-Kind with Kings Oueens Wins A Bonus! Dollars 20 Quarters $10 Nickels $5 hile many big corporations are shedding their old-fashioned names these days, brokers on Wall Street seek to preserve theirs, like fine antiques. Old-fashioned is fashionable on The Street.

A patina rather than a gloss. Names such as Morgan and Lehman and Goldman Sachs and Salomon suggest stabili ty, experience, continuity, know-how, tradition, permanence. The latter, above all, is desirable in a securities industry roiled by mergers and acquisitions and changing goals and cus John Cunliff Business Mirror tomer bases. Since 1981 the industry has undergone 720 mergers and acquisitions. In many of those deals there was at least an attempt to keep those old identities, strung out in a name too large for the gold-leafer to fit on the door or to be spelled out in a word processor line.

The biggest deal of all occurred last week when corporate investment banker Morgan Stanley Co. announced a $10.22 billion alliance with Dean Witter, il 6m Famous, Mouth Watering, Sandwich for only; aw orncn 4-of-A-Kim promotou Every Heart Flush Wins A Bonus! Dollars $10 Quarters $5 Nickels $2 New York Stock Exchange, but brokers still cling to their old mahogany image. You know, "We do things the old-fashioned way." Those ties to the past are especially important because the securities industry is simultaneously consolidating and expanding. It isn't stable; it's changing. Old companies merge and aggressive little ones create and fill niches.

In such flux, it is very important to retain names such as Morgan, because J.P. Morgan did after all build an empire. That's worth remembering when raising money for new companies with similar notions. It's very impressive. The market has shifted.

Old-line firms that specialized only in raising money or serving institutional customers now see hundreds of billions of dollars being invested by individuals.1 They want that business. If you have any doubts about the size of the new markets consider this: Mutual funds assets are $3.5 trillion today, compared with under $50 billion 20 years ago. There were fewer than 500 funds in 1977, but more than 10 times that number now. Fewer than 8 million accounts, compared to 125 million now. Individuals today are investors, and with retirement approaching for a large segment of the population, that trend is likely to continue.

Old-line firms need this market; they need a retail operation. John Cunliff is a syndicated columnist. The opinions expressed are the writer's and do not necessarily represent those of The Spectum. returns should check the tax instructions. They will need to file a return if their income goes over a certain amount.

Students who don't have enough income to file, but who had taxes withheld from their paychecks during the year, may want to file to get a refund. The kinds of income students may have to pay tax on includes wages, tips, self-employment income, investment income (including interest on a bank account), and taxable scholar- attract customers, said Greg Lee, vice president of development. "I've spent a lot of time with different cage managers asking them what would you do if you had to do it over again," Greg Lee said. "We've tried to incorporate as many of those 'if you had to do over agains' as possible into the design Discover retailer of securities to small investors. The names of both survive in the new title: Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter, Discover Co.

Earlier mergers also kept the names of both parties, at least until popular usage, reputation or unwieldiness compelled shortening. The ultimate in name perseverance and preservation belongs to Shearson, which began in 1902 as Shearson Hammill Co. and went through eight mutations between then and 1988, when it became Shearson Lehman Hutton. It survived that way until the early 1990s or nearly a century after its founding, when Smith Barney Inc. took control, creating Smith Barney Shearson Inc.

Finally, a vestigial appendage, the name Shearson was dropped. Despite preservation efforts, what eventually happened to Shearson often happens to others. The names at the rear of the title are in the greatest danger of being being eliminated. First in line seldom gets erased. Merrill Lynch, for example, is the survivor of a much longer name.

Now called Merrill Lynch it was for years known as Merrill Lynch, Pierce. Fenner Smith (or Beane). It has reached the irreducible minimum. In contrast to this reverence for the past, companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange in recent years have dropped their founders' names for something more modern in a high-tech world. The future's the thing.

Founding names such as Ford, Deere and Fuqua are now rare among the 2,800 listings on the TAXES AND THE WORKING STUDENT You're a full-time student with a part-time job and, suddenly, taxes are no longer just something your parents have to do. Filing income tax returns isn't just for those with full-time jobs. High school and college students with part-time jobs, taxable scholarships, or interest or dividends may have to file, too. Even students who can be'claimed as dependents on other people's tax Barton's Gin Don't forget to try our World To Die For, Giant Steak Tks ciwwt Be usio conJUAcrov with -4 Spectum photo Hans. K.

Meye Mesquite Casino. open. A steak house, snack bar and video arcade should be open by summer, Lee said. The Wild Cactus Lounge will feature live entertainment beginning with the county band Fast Country, which performs through Sunday. Performances begin each night at 8 p.m.

A BILLION ISNT WHAT IT USED TO BE When John D. Rockefeller was alive, and worth $1.4 billion, his wealth was equivalent to one sixty-fifth of the nation's gross national product. But the richest man in the United States today, Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates, has only one four-hundred-twenty-fifth of the GNP even though he's worth $15 billion. That observation is contained in "The Wealthy 100," a book by Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther that looks at the 100 richest Americans.

The booming U.S. economy has meant a billionaire's share of the pie has shrunk. CRAYON TRIVIA When John D.CRAYON Binney Smith, the people who make Crayola crayons, are on the verge of announcing eight new colors. To mark trie occasion, they offer some little-known facts about crayons: The average child in the United States will wear down 730 crayons by the time he or she is 10. The company turns out an average of 5 million crayons a day, or more than 2 billion' featih VeaV." Although there are 104 colors (including the eight new ones), the labels are made in only 18 colors.

And the box of 24 crayons is the company's best-seller. THE JOB OUTLOOK: Companies will be cutting fewer jobs this year, but workers and job hunters will still feel the effects of cost-conscious employers, says Challenger, Gray Christmas, a consulting firm that tracks the job market. The company says many corporations are relying on outsourcing, and hiring people on an "as needed" basis. And when they are hiring permanent workers, many bosses are looking for people who can work on a variety of teams and who are comfortable with technology. Current employees with limited skills even if they're good workerswill be the most vulnerable if there are future layoffs.

Companies are looking for generalist rather than specialist workers who can do a variety of jobs, Challenger Gray said. By The Associated Press ships and fellowships. When students begin working, they fill out a Form W-4, "Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate," to help their employer figure the amount of taxes, if any, to withhold from their paychecks. At the beginning of the new year, students with income over the limit that applies must file a tax return. Most students can use Form 1040EZ.

It's the shortest, simplest form. But if their income includes over $400 of taxable interest or any amount of dividends, students must use Form 1040A. Or, if they had any self-employment income, they must use Form 1040. Many students may be able to use the IRS TeleFile system to file returns over the phone. Those who are eligible for this program will get a special TeleFile tax booklet.

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