River City Casino awarded gaming license
St. Louis Business Journal
February 24, 2010
by Diana Barr
The Missouri Gaming Commission unanimously approved licensing the new River City Casino in Lemay, Mo., by a 5-0 vote at the commission's meeting Wednesday.
The casino, which will be the seventh in the St. Louis area, is set to open next Thursday, March 4, and employ 1,200 workers.
Prior to the vote, representatives of the casino's owner, Pinnacle Entertainment, gave a presentation to the commission outlining the steps it had taken during construction to satisfy the commission's requirements for the new $380 million project.
Garry Earls, chief operating officer for St. Louis County, and Denny Coleman, president and CEO of the St. Louis County Economic Council, spoke in favor of River City's opening, prior to the commission's vote.
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay called the casino opening an "aphoristic rising tide that lifts several boats."
"Most importantly, the new casino in the county will employ hundreds of St. Louisans, including city residents, in a range of jobs -- a very welcome development in the current jobs market," Slay wrote on his blog. "The casino, located just outside the city's southern border, will enhance development potential in the adjacent Carondelet neighborhood in the city. And it will mean an increase in the annual revenue that Pinnacle will pay the City of St. Louis -- another welcome outcome."
Not all local residents are happy about the prospect of more casinos opening. This morning outside the St. Louis County government center, where the gaming commission was meeting, a group of opponents of a proposed $350 million casino in North St. Louis County picketed, carrying signs saying "Save the Confluence" and "No casino." However, the proposed Riverview Casino was not on the Gaming Commission's agenda Wednesday, and no action on the project occurred at the meeting.
The fate of Pinnacle Entertainment's President Casino on the Mississippi riverfront was also not on the commission's agenda Wednesday. On Friday Las Vegas-based Pinnacle (NYSE: PNK) filed a request for a hearing to dispute state gaming regulators' plans to close the financially ailing casino.
