The Arkansas Racing Commission on June 18 awarded the state’s fourth and final casino license to Mississippi-based Gulfside Casino Partnership for a proposed $254 million casino resort in Pope County. However, the other contender for the license, a $225 million casino resort proposed by the partnership of the Oklahoma-based Cherokee Nation and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ Legends Hospitality, alleged bias scoring by Commissioner Butch Rice. The commission’s decision has been referred to the Arkansas attorney general.
An affidavit submitted by Cherokee Nation Business Counsel Dustin McDaniel alleges Rice “consistently attempted to protect Gulfside Casino Partnership from facing competition in an effort to award them a license by default.”
Rice gave Gulfside’s bid a perfect score of 100 and CNB’s bid a score of 29. Rice’s 71-point scoring difference gave Gulfside the victory with a total score of 637-572.
Rice said he conducted an objective evaluation of the competing proposals and he wasn’t biased toward Gulfside. He said he believes Gulfside is a better fit for the Pope County casino since Gulfside wants to build a larger casino than CNB, meaning more jobs and more tax revenue.
Rice said, “It is almost like comparing apples and oranges when comparing job creation and tax revenue. The job creation was big to me, and that’s what Gulfside proved, and that’s what the people of Pope County would have been looking at.”
McDaniel said Rice’s scores must be eliminated—giving CNB a higher point total. “Despite the AG’s office expressly warning commissioners not to engage in arbitrary, capricious or biased scoring, Commissioner Rice in fact single-handedly overturned the score given by the rest of the commission.”
He added, “We anticipate both an administrative appeal and a request for injunctive relief from a court. This is a uniquely significant state decision, and such an egregious act of bad faith should not be allowed to control it.”
Commissioners faced three options: 1) excluding Rice’s scores; 2) restarting the scoring process; or 3) bringing in an independent consultant. With Rice absent, on June 22 the commission instead voted that Gulfside and CNB must meet with the attorney general’s office to seek “common ground on a solution,” commission spokesman Scott Hardin said. “This will have to be determined fairly quickly as a letter was issued to Gulfside on Friday announcing the intent to award the Pope County casino license. The commission has 30 days from the date the letter is received to formally issue the license. Prior to the end of the 30-day period, the commission should have feedback following meetings with both parties.”
Commission Chairman Alex Lieblong said he hoped the meeting of attorneys could give the commission a “game plan.”
In November 2018, Arkansas voters approved Amendment 100, allowing expanded casino operations at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs, Southland Casino Racing in West Memphis and new casinos in Pope County and Jefferson County, where the Quapaw Nation’s $350 million complex is under construction .
The deputy attorney general for state agencies, Butch Reeves, warned the commission at the outset to make sure there were not major differences between the scores.
“If you give somebody 30 and then the next party zero, your score is considered arbitrary and can get us in trouble,” he said.
