Starting July 14, the Kansas Lottery will begin accepting applications for a fourth state-owned casino to be located in Cherokee or Crawford County. The deadline for submitting applications will be 1:00 p.m., Friday, December 19, said Sally Lunsford, Kansas Lottery director of public affairs.
The Kansas legislature authorized a casino in the Southeast Gaming Zone in 2005, but area officials said the required investment and fee were too high to attract developers. In the last legislative session, state Senator Jake LaTurner sponsored a measure to lower the required initial investment of $225 million to $50 million and to drop the application fee from $25 million to $5.5 million. Governor Sam Brownback allowed the casino bill to become law without his signature back in April.
Said LaTurner, “People have been working for years to get it right. I was really grateful to be part of the solution and get it across the finish line. We have a lot of other things in Kansas that need our attention, so I’m glad this is out of the way. The big part of this is that we will stop bleeding so much money out of the state of Kansas. We were just getting sucked dry from Oklahoma,” LaTurner said.
All applicants must have sufficient financial resources and three consecutive years of Class III gaming experience, and they must be up-to-date with taxes. A seven-member review board have 90 days to negotiate contracts with applicants and to then choose the winning application, which must have an endorsement from the host city or county. The Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission then will conduct background checks on all individuals associated with the casino company.
