The Osage Nation in Oklahoma recently hired former Missouri House Speaker Steve Tilley and two of his associates at Strategic Capitol Consulting to lobby on behalf of the tribe’s efforts to open a casino in Missouri.
In January the tribe contributed $52,000 to help underwrite Republican Governor Eric Greitens’ inaugural celebrations. Osage Nation Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear said the tribe wrote two checks for the inauguration as a way to establish a good relationship with the governor. “We thought we would show him respect,” Standing Bear said.
The tribe wants to develop a casino in Cuba in Interstate 44, about 80 miles southwest of St. Louis. It also has considered acreage in Kimberling City in southwest Missouri and in the Lake of the Ozarks region in mid-Missouri. The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs and Greitens would have to approve the off-reservation casino.
The Osage Nation currently operates seven casinos in Oklahoma, including locations in Tulsa, Ponca City and Pawhuska.
According to the Missouri Gaming Commission, the state’s 13 casinos generated $211 million for schools so far this year.
