The Kansas Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board recently chose the .2 million Kansas Crossing Casino & Hotel in Pittsburg, Crawford County over two other proposals. Now Cherokee County commissioners want the state to block that recommendation and re-start the selection process for a casino in the southeast gaming zone. Review board members said the Kansas Crossing proposal, the least expensive of the three, was the right size for the market, with 625 slot machines and 16 poker tables, drawing 500,000 visitors annually.
But Cherokee County Commission Chairman Richard Hilderbrand said the county believes the review board did not follow state law, requiring it to select the contract that “best maximizes revenue, encourages tourism and otherwise serves the interests of the people of Kansas.”
Hilderbrand said the $145 million Castle Rock Casino would offer 1,400 slot machines, 35 table games and a 16-table poker room, and attract more than 1 million visitors annually year.
Moe than once during the selection process, Review Board consultants questioned the viability of the Castle Rock proposal. As a result, Castle Rock investors said they would add another $60 million, bringing the total to $110 million, with about $30 million remaining to finance. Investors Rodney and Brandon Steven told the board they personally would guarantee the project.
Kansas Crossing spokeswoman Carrie Tedore said the review board met with several of the industry’s top consultants and studied the proposals for months. She said the board members also considered Kansas Crossings principals’ strong partnerships with local officials and the involvement of key investors and executives in Dodge City and Wichita casinos. “We look forward to giving southeast Kansas a facility of which they will be extremely proud,” Tedore said.
Kansas Crossing casino and 120-room hotel are expected to open next summer. Located in Kansas’ southeast gaming zone, it will be the final of four non-tribal casinos allowed under a 2007 Kansas law and will be owned by the Kansas Lottery. The state will receive at least 22 percent of the casino’s gambling profits.
Kansas Crossing will be located 30 miles south of the Quapaw Tribe’s Downstream Casino Resort. Castle Rock would have been built less than a mile from the Downstream, just over the Kansas state line. Downstream is located in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri but gaming only occurs on the Oklahoma portion, which is held in federal trust. So is the Kansas portion, which currently is a parking lot. The Kansas attorney general is suing the tribe as it pursues plans to expand the casino onto that area.
