Legends Resort & Casino Deemed Sole Qualified Bid in Arkansas’ Pope County
Only Cherokee Nation Entertainment's offer for the Legends Resort & Casino is eligible for additional consideration for the one commercial gaming license designated for Pope County, according to the Arkansas Racing Commission (ARC).
According to gaming commissioners, the agency received two bids yesterday for the state's last casino license. In addition to the $300 million Cherokee concept, ARC was provided with a $405 million plan named River Valley Casino Resort by Gulfside Casino Partnership, a Mississippi-based organization.
Russellville is the focus of both proposals, but only the Cherokee submission included letters of support from Pope County Judge Ben Cross and the Pope County Quorum Court.
In 2018, voters in Arkansas approved the establishment of casinos in Crittenden, Garland, Jefferson, and Pope counties through a statewide ballot referendum. The goal of the legislation was to allow the racetracks in Southland and Oaklawn to transform into full-fledged casinos complete with slot machines, table games, and sports betting.
The vote also established two new casino opportunities in Pope and Jefferson Counties, the latter of which required its casino to be located within two miles of Russellville. According to the vote, applicants for the casino licenses in Jefferson and Pope had to "provide a resolution from the county quorum court or a letter of support from the county judge in the county where the casino would be located."
Gulfside Unqualified
The Gulf Coast Because the River Valley proposal did not fulfill the requirements of receiving Cross' support or an endorsement resolution from the Pope County Quorum Court, Unqualified ARC decided Wednesday night to exclude Gulfside from further consideration.
The justices ruled 7-5 against awarding River Valley a support resolution last week, denying Gulfside the opportunity to present its project before the quorum court.
Gulfside representatives stated on Thursday that they are considering their options. However, it appears that the Pope County casino license case is virtually finished, nearly six years after the gaming concession was approved.
Now that Legends is the sole qualifying bid, ARC will start looking at the casino resort plan. An outside consultant will first examine the application as part of that process.
Additionally, Cherokee Nation Entertainment has been asked to meet with ARC on June 27 to outline the scope of its initiative. Following the presentation, each commissioner will provide a score between 1 and 100 to the casino resort outline.
Scandal Grading
The Pope County casino license was initially challenged in court due to ARC's grading component. This month marks the fourth anniversary of ARC's vote on the plans for the Gulfside and Cherokee casinos.
By giving the River Valley project a perfect score of 100/100 and the Legends proposal only 29/100, then-Commissioner Butch Rice single-handedly swung the vote in favor of Gulfside. Prior to the Cherokees threatening to sue, ARC had originally intended to grant Gulfside the license on the grounds that Rice's "so wildly divergent" score demonstrated "a bias." Later, Rice's colleagues commissioners came to the conclusion that Rice's grading was biased.
Following the commission's decision to grant the license to the Legends proposal, Gulfside filed a lawsuit against the state.
Since the River Valley proposal was submitted with a letter of support from former Pope County Judge Tim Fox, the legal dispute also included whether a former county judge was qualified to provide such a document. Only the sitting judge's backing qualified, according to state courts.
Because the Cherokee applied as a partnership with a recently established company called Legends Resort& Casino, LLC rather than as a single organization, it was also decided that their initial application violated the bidding regulations in a different case that made it all the way to the Arkansas Supreme Court. With its most recent attempt, the Cherokees addressed that issue by submitting an application under the name Cherokee Nation Entertainment.
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