Removal of President Casino license will be re-visited by state commission

Pinnacle Entertainment last week celebrated the opening of its new $375 million River City Casino near St. Louis, Missouri with champagne, red carpets and women costumed in riverboat regalia of a bygone age.

It brings the state's total to 13 casinos.

About 400 guests were invited to the soft opening that included the ceremony of the executive director of the Missouri Gaming Commission officially presenting the casino with its license.

"I was in awe. It's a beautiful facility. Very well done," observed the commission's chairman Jim Mathewson earlier in the week.

The Lemay casino, one of the largest in St. Louis area, has 2,100 slot machines and 55 tables of blackjack, poker and craps. Its décor recalls the 1904 World's Fair that was held in St. Louis. A hotel may be added in a $75 million second phase. It is expected to bring in about $17 million a month in revenue.

A hotel is not seen as a necessity just yet as the new casino will be competing in a market that has been estimated at $1.3 billion. Other casinos in that rapidly expanding market includes the Lumière, Casino Queen, the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles and Harrah's in Maryland Heights.

The Lumière, also owned by Pinnacle, is expected to lose some of its business to the new casino, which is just a few minutes away by shuttle bus. However, it has a hotel and right now the River City does not. A fleet of buses will link the two operations.

Pinnacle expects that the two casinos will work symbiotically to grow the market for both.  The company has recent history backing up its contention. The Lumière has grown faster than had been originally projected. Gambling profits in the state as a whole have bucked recession blues that most other jurisdictions have suffered.

"Our goal is to grow the market," he said. "It's always easier to do that than to try and steal other people's customers," said a spokesman, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Kathleen Ratcliffe, president of the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission said she expects the new casino to draw business into the area, especially from bus tours.

In honor of the new arrival the St. Louis County Council voted last week to change the names of the residential streets adjacent to the casino to River City Boulevard and River City Casino Boulevard. The casino is expected to pay about $12 million in taxes annually to the county.

The new casino's development helped to redevelop an old, contaminated, and abandoned industrial property on the banks of the Mississippi in a flood plain.

Meanwhile Pinnacle has successfully won a battle in its war to preserve the President Casino, which is just a short distance from the River City in downtown St. Louis. The commission in August voted to force the President to close by this summer by taking away its license-and not allowing Pinnacle to retain the license for a different location.

The Western District Court of Appeals has reversed the commission's ruling and ordered the commission to look at the issue again. The court expressed puzzlement as to the purpose of the commission's original ruling and said it was concerned that Pinnacle had been deprived of due process.

 The court wrote, "While neither party fully convinces this court of its position, the confusion regarding what the resolution attempts to accomplish raises concern that this was a contested case without sufficient process."

In its appeal the company argued that nothing has changed since the commission renewed its license three years ago. It calls the most recent decision "unreasonable and an abuse of discretion." It added that the commission's action had the effect of revoking its license and to make it available to another casino operator.

It had asked the commission to allow it to replace the old, damaged Admiral riverboat with a new barge. The commission chose to treat that request as a brand new application for a license.

The commission's executive director Gene McNary commented on the ruling: "The courts have sent it back to us and the commission will act as they deem fit."

By Staff