JEFFERSON CITY | If Missouri gets another casino, it will be along the banks of the Mississippi River in Cape Girardeau, not Sugar Creek.
The state Gaming Commission on Wednesday voted unanimously to “prioritize” the eastern Missouri locale to receive a single available casino-gaming license.
The vote disqualifies applications from Sugar Creek in Jackson County and
Commission Chairman James Mathewson said the state’s experience with the casino’s proposed operator, Isle of Capri, along with strong local support and potential revenues were leading reasons for picking the site.
In a ballot question last month, 61 percent of Cape Girardeau voters favored bringing a casino to the city, now 85 miles from the nearest Missouri casino.
The applications from Sugar Creek and St. Louis were fraught with concerns over competition with other casinos, Mathewson said. That was particularly true for the Kansas City market, which already has four riverboats and will face competition from a casino now under construction across the state line in Wyandotte County.
“I felt like — and I think some of the other commissioners did, too — that the market already has pretty strong casinos open there,” Mathewson said of Kansas City. “And, with Kansas coming in on the other side, we were concerned about that.”
Sugar Creek officials said they had expected the decision following last week’s release of a state Department of Economic Development report that indicated a Sugar Creek casino could take away business from existing Kansas City casinos.
“We were disappointed, obviously,” said Sugar Creek Mayor Stan Salva. “I guess the thing that was most disappointing was that they basically looked at the application only in terms of a casino, while what we had to offer — a destination resort — was so much more than that.”
Salva said the time and effort put into the casino application still was time well-spent.
“We are not going to give up,” he said.
The license application process kicked off earlier this year, after the commission asked an aging St. Louis area casino to close and relinquish its license.
It was the first such process since a 2008 change to state law that capped the number of Missouri casinos at 13. For the first time, applications were competitive, with multiple casino operators and jurisdictions vying for a single license.
“It was tough — it was a tough decision,” said Mathewson, who at one point compared the vote with a baby-judging competition.
Wednesday’s vote did not grant a license to Cape Girardeau and the Isle of Capri. Rather, it selected the applicant “to be investigated to determine the suitability for a license,” setting off another round of analysis.
From this point forward, however, only Cape Girardeau will be considered.
To reach Jason Noble, call 573-634-3565 or send e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Copyright © 2024 ToCasino.net Online Casino. All Rights Reserved. Designed by