A statute that would amend Arkansas’ casino licensing protocols and reserve the Arkansas Racing Commission (ARC) to deal another summons round for a gaming concession inward Alexander Pope County has ripe inward the nation Legislature.
The Arkansas Joint Budget Committee’s Administrative Rule Review Subcommittee on Wednesday ripe the proposed changes submitted past ARC to the good Joint Budget Committee. Last month, racing commissions, in consultation with Arkansas River Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office, amended the state’s “Application for Casino Gaming License and Renewal” document.
The changes seek to tolerate the Racing Commission to direct a s summons round out for a cassino licence allocated for Pope County. The permit was authorised inwards 2018 through and through a statewide ballot referendum.
ARC is hoping to reopen bidding for the Alexander Pope cassino this summer, but the timeline is subordinate on the Legislature signing sour on the licensing changes.
License Stalemate
Arkansas voters approved a single casino inwards the counties of Crittenden, Garland, Jefferson, and Pope.
The election interrogative sentence outcome allowed the state’s two racetracks to get full-scale casinos, Southland inward Memphis and Oaklawn in Hot Springs. Thomas Jefferson County partnered with the Quapaw Nation, which built and opened a $350 million casino holiday resort called Saracen in October 2020.
The treat from authorization to fruition for the Alexander Pope County gambling casino evolution hasn’t progressed at nearly the same pace. The holdup arose from II companies making bids for the licence — Cherokee Carry Nation Businesses and Gulfside Casino Partnership.
The controversy began when ARC set that ane of its commissioners was one-sided inwards leveling the two pitches. The commissioner’s awarding of the Gulfside program a perfect 100/100 spell giving the Cherokee blueprint only 29 points singlehandedly tipped the outcome inward Gulfside’s favor.
Legal pandemonium ensued after the Cherokees sued ARC and the state. The Gulfside permission was eventually rescinded after the example reached the say Supreme Court, which ruled the Gulfside pitch was shut-in because it wasn’t attended past a varsity letter of reenforcement from the posing county try or electric current quorum court.
After ARC opted to apply the certify to the Cherokees, Gulfside sued on grounds that it too violated summons rules past applying as a consortium, non as a bingle entity as required by the 2019 Arkansas River Old Ironsides amendment. That pillowcase also reached the Supreme Court, which inward January, ruled that Gulfside’s complaint was valid and the Cherokees didn’t characterize for ARC’s considerateness because they applied for the permission with a freshly formed entity called Legends Resort & Casino, LLC.
Cherokees Favored
ARC’s changes to the bidding rules, if enacted past the Legislature, would seemingly pull up stakes only the Cherokees as a qualified bidder. Though the fellowship will want to make over its applications programme to a single entity, the tribe’s commercial gaming evolution building block has the livelihood of both Pope County Judge Ben Cross and the Pope County Quorum Court.
ARC’s proposed adjustments to the operation business deal only when with gaining empowerment to reconduct a summons stop for the unissued license. They don’t urge stripping the requisite of a bidding only when qualifying with an blurb letter from the county adjudicate or quorum court.
However, the rescript did include specifying the adjudicate and courtroom must live the posing judge or court at the time of the gambling casino covering submission. Previously, Gulfside included a letter of the alphabet of support from a former county judge.
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