City to send gaming commission letter of interest in casino

Without a specific proposal from a casino company wanting to locate in Cape Girardeau, city manager Scott Meyer said Friday that he has prepared a general letter of interest in gambling for the city.

The Cape Girardeau City Council will discuss the letter during the work session before Monday's regular meeting. The letter is intended to put the Missouri Gaming Commission on notice that the city would like to be considered as a possible location for the lone gambling license that will become available July 1.

"We are interested in a situation where the development would complement the Comprehensive Plan, the DREAM Initiative plan and be a positive outcome to the city's income," Meyer said.

Missouri law allows 13 casinos to operate in the state. The casinos must be within 1,000 feet of the Missouri or Mississippi Rivers. The license limit was enacted in 2008 as part of a package of changes to casino laws approved by voters and placed on the ballot by the industry.

Earlier this year, Pinnacle Entertainment dropped its attempt to keep the President Casino in St. Louis open, either by moving the facility or the license to a new location. The gaming commission then set a May 1 deadline for cities and casino developers to state whether they had any interest in obtaining the license.

A casino development company, which former Mayor Jay Knudtson described at the April 5 council meeting as operating in six states and based in St. Louis, has approached the city about locating here. No discussions have been held since, Meyer said Friday.

Isle of Capri Casinos Inc., which operates casinos in Caruthersville, Mo., Boonville, Mo., and Kansas City, Mo., operates in six states. In an e-mail response to questions, Jill Haynes, senior director of corporate communications, would not say whether the company is specifically interested in Cape Girardeau.

"Isle of Capri Casinos is looking at a variety of opportunities in a variety of markets," Haynes said.

Cape Girardeau voters approved bringing a casino to the city in 1993. The city struck a deal with Boyd Gaming Group, but the company was not able to obtain a license.

David Knight, owner of Ole Hickory Pits, and James Riley, owner of Red Letter Communications, purchased much of the land Boyd targeted and were pushing a casino development along North Main Street when the gaming commission stopped consideration of all new licenses in 2008.

The council is unlikely to take a formal vote on whether to send Meyer's letter. He said he wrote it to satisfy the concerns raised in a work-session discussion April 5 and, since it does not endorse a particular developer, should be enough to keep the city under consideration.

Mayor Harry Rediger, who will be presiding over his first city council meeting Monday and will be joined by two new council members, said he agrees with the tone of the letter. "We are indicating a level of interest," Rediger said. "It is about as vanilla a letter as you could ever imagine. And no, we are not anywhere endorsing gambling."

Before the council could endorse a casino proposal, Rediger said, the city would have to have a firm grasp of how many jobs it would create, what infrastructure would be needed to support it and the financial ramifications, both in costs and benefits, of a casino.

The letter of interest is the only way to get to the point of those considerations, Rediger said.

"If you want to be a player at all, you have got to get a letter in by May 1," he said. "They didn't ask for specifics, just a level of interest."

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.