Bodog Beat

Missouri's Casino Moratorium is leaving a couple casino builders feeling a bit empty. (Image Courtesy http2007 at Flickr).

The Missouri Gaming Commission has imposed a temporary moratorium on the opening of any new casinos in the state. The moratorium will last until November when voters will decide on whether the state should cap the number of casinos allowed.

No doubt casinos that are already open will be drooling at the prospect of a government imposed restriction to their competition. While those seeking to build new casinos in the Kansas City suburb of Sugar Creek and in Cape Girardeau would be less than thrilled.

The Gaming Commission’s meeting that decided the moratorium acted to essentially pre-empt the casino license of two Cape Girargeau businessmen who have been quietly buying up land along the Mississippi River.

According to AP, “The project had not been made public. But developers David Knight and James Riley Jr. said Monday that they already had confidentially outlined their plans to [Gene] McNary and other Gaming Commission staff, who initially had urged them to proceed quickly to meet deadlines before the ballot initiative went to a statewide vote.”

McNary, the commission's executive director, has spoken out against capping the number of casinos in Missouri previously this year. But he also claimed that gaming commissioners had come to the mutual decision to stop casino expansion, thus saving Knight and Riley the $50,000 casino license application fee.

McNary claims that the commission’s consensus was not formed in violation of Missouri's Sunshine Law which states that the government must make public all meetings, records, votes and actions. They accomplished this, according to McNary, by holding either in-person meetings or e-mail conversations before Monday's official meeting.

The budding Sugar Creek casino was even closer to being built and has seen State Sen. Victor Callahan, D-Independence, Rep. Ray Salva, D-Sugar Creek, and an attorney for Sugar Creek all pleading with the Gaming Commission to either reject the moratorium or at least allow the Sugar Creek casino to proceed, claiming it’s development would generate hundreds of millions of dollars of economic benefit.

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