Missouri Gaming Commission approves casino moratorium - By Rick Alm KCSTAR

By RICK ALM The Kansas City Star There will be no new riverboat casinos in Missouri until voters have their say. A unanimous Missouri Gaming Commission on Monday agreed to a moratorium on further consideration of any casino applicants, including one pending in Sugar Creek, until at least November. The commission's 5-0 vote Monday rejected appeals from lawyers, politicians and civic leaders in Sugar Creek and Cape Girardeau who demanded an open marketplace in the state's gambling industry and an opportunity for the same economic development in their communities. "This moratorium is not in the best interests of the state of Missouri," said Sugar Creek lawyer Douglas S. Stone. "We have been working diligently with you for the past year and a half," said Rep. Ray Salva, a Sugar Creek Democrat. "We don't think we should be treated this way." If initiative petitions are certified by state officials this summer, Missouri voters in November would decide a gaming industry-backed ballot measure that would cap the statewide number of casinos at their current 13, which includes one under construction near St. Louis. It also would repeal the state's $500 loss limit and mandatory use of patron identity cards, raise casino taxes by 1 percent and earmark an estimated $100 million in new tax revenue for public school funding. The timing of Monday's decision was critical. The commission had been set next month to consider the Sugar Creek project for "priority investigation," a status that could add it to the list of casinos under construction and exempt from the ballot measure. That point wasn't lost on commissioner Sam Hais, a former St. Louis judge, who sharply questioned Sugar Creek interests for trying to make it to that July meeting and "get in under the wire … safe" from the November vote. Gaming industry representatives, stock market analysts and some lawmakers have sharply criticized the gaming commission for its unanimous decision earlier this year to consider an additional casino in the Kansas City market at a time Kansas is preparing to build two state-owned gambling facilities in Wyandotte County. Iowa-based Wild Rose Entertainment was the sole gaming company that filed an application for a Sugar Creek casino license. Company officials did not return calls Monday. If built as proposed at the time, the $135 million Wild Rose facility would be the smallest riverboat casino floor in the Kansas City market, with 1,200 slot machines. Gaming Commission director Gene McNary, who has pushed the Wild Rose project, endorsed the moratorium. "It's contrary to what we would like to see go forward," he said of the ban. "But the fact is we're regulators, and we're not operating in a vacuum." Casinos are coming in Kansas, and "the casino industry is going through a downturn," he said. The moratorium language said the "Gaming Commission desires to be responsive to the wishes of the citizens … and will be guided by their vote in November." The measure also offered to refund Wild Rose's $50,000 application fee. -- http://www.bransonedge.com http://www.bransonmissouri.blogspot.com