Nov. 7--CASINO BOAT SLIPS INTO S.C.: Dewayne Williams, who ran the LA Cruise casino ship out of Biloxi for three years before the advent of legal dockside gambling in 1992, is getting a rude reception to his plans to operate a similar boat out of South Carolina.

Williams filed a lawsuit in July seeking permission to operate off the South Carolina coast and got a favorable ruling earlier this month in U.S. District Court.

He recently bought a 100-foot catamaran and equipped it with casino slot machines and table games. Williams planned to operate the boat -- named The Victori after his daughter -- out of Murrells Inlet, just south of Myrtle Beach.

But legislators say they will ban offshore casino boats when the General Assembly reconvenes in January.

And residents threatened to use their boats to block the harbor.

"We don't want that casino ship in Murrells Inlet any more than we want the Queen Mary," protest leader Jack Wellman told The Sun News of Myrtle Beach.

Williams duped the locals when he nudged The Victori into a Murrells Inlet boat slip under cover of darkness late Tuesday.

Williams, who first operated LA Cruise in Biloxi in 1989, was indicted in 1992 on charges of skimming profits, concealing financial records and lying to U.S. Customs. Charges were dropped after he pleaded guilty to contempt of court.

Williams had hoped to operate a barge casino when dockside gambling on the Coast was legalized in 1992. But the allegations and other problems deep-sixed any chances he had of being licensed by the Mississippi Gaming Commission.

Williams moved to Florida in 1993 and began operating cruises to nowhere out of Mayport, near Jacksonville.

Williams could not be reached for comment. A recorded message at his home said the telephone was "temporarily disconnected."

"I'm the same person they are," Williams told The Sun News. "I'm not Mafia, but a country boy lucky enough to have had some breaks."

NEW REGULATIONS LIKELY: Mississippi casinos may soon be required to allow customers to have their names removed from direct mail and marketing lists, the state's top gambling regulator said.

Regulations may also be drawn up requiring casino companies to train employees on methods of identifying and approaching potential problem gamblers, Mississippi Gaming Commission Executive Director Chuck Patton said.

"If there's a way to do it, we're going to want to have it on the books," Patton said. "It makes sense."

Similar regulations have been adopted in other states, most recently Nevada, as the casino industry and its regulators become increasingly responsive to gambling addictions.

"We're going to look at what they're doing," Patton said.

Most larger casino companies already train employees about problem gambling and stop sending promotional materials to customers who ask to be removed from mailing lists.

"The responsible companies already do that," Patton said. "The problem is with those that don't."

HARD SELL FOR HARD ROCK: Full House Resorts, of San Diego, and the Rank Organization, owners of several European casinos and the Hard Rock restaurants chain, are close to acquiring some 6 1/2 acres of land near the unfinished Beau Rivage casino hotel, a knowledgeable source said.

Negotiations to buy the site of the bankrupt Gold Shore casino has been complicated by the fact there are five property owners. Sources say the combined price for the parcels is between $35 million and $40 million.

Full House has abandoned plans to buy the Windjammer condominiums, which separates the Gold Shore site from the Beau Rivage.

GRAND DEAL: New Jersey casino mogul Donald Trump is denying reports he is negotiating to buy 18 acres Grand Casinos owns on the Las Vegas Strip.

"It's just not true," Nicholas Ribis, chief executive officer of Trump Hotels, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "I'm so mad I'm seeing purple."

Grand is spinning off its three Mississippi casino hotels as part of a pending merger with Hilton Hotels that will be up for a shareholders vote Nov. 24.

The Strip property will become part of Lakes Gaming, a public company that will consist largely of Grand's American Indian management contracts in Louisiana and Minnesota.

PRICE GOES UP: Development costs for the 1,800-room Beau Rivage casino hotel on Biloxi Beach has risen to about $650 million, company spokesman Andy Bourland said.

MAGIC SLIMS DOWN: Jay Osman is resigning as chief financial officer for Casino Magic to do consulting work in Mississippi for a Las Vegas-based casino company. Casino Magic is merging with Hollywood Park, and upper management of the two companies is being consolidated.

'SO SUE ME': A.T. Curd Constructors, of Glendale, Calif., has filed a complaint in U.S. District Court seeking $1.75 million the company said it is owed for serving as a subcontractor for the Imperial Palace.

The company said it agreed to a $8.5 million contract to work on the $350 million casino hotel on Biloxi's Back Bay.

"I don't think that's anybody's business," Imperial Palace owner Ralph Engelstad said of the lawsuit. "That's private business between me and Curd.

"They say I owe them money. I don't think they did their job. Well, we'll let a judge decide."