Although a ballot initiative to legalize casinos in three Arkansas counties could draw some gambling dollars away from Oklahoma, that hasn’t stopped a Sooner State tribe from supporting it. Cherokee Nation Businesses has ponied up $400,000 to support 
the ballot question. What’s in it for them? Management of the northwesternmost casino, which would siphon business away from the Branson, Missouri area. (Branson businessman Marc Williams is also a campaign backer.) Arkansas Winning Initiative, as the campaign is called, is hotly opposed by the state’s horse tracks, which have VLTs, to the tune of a hundred grand. Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a casino opponent, is also trying to tip the scales against Arkansas Winning Initiative. He’s appointed failed congressional candidate Warren Dupwe to hear a case that would remove Initiative 5 from the November ballot. Dupwe replaces Supreme Court Justice Courtney Goodson, who has recused herself due to her personal connections with the state’s horseracing industry. Oaklawn Racing & Gaming in Hot Springs and Southland Park Gaming & Racing in West Memphis are challenging the validity of many of the signatures on the Initiative 5 petitions. Goodson isn’t the first special master to fall by the wayside in the Initiative 5 case: First Judicial Circuit Judge Bentley Story removed himself a day after being appointed, because his daughter-in-law works for Oaklawn. The horsey set seems to have its tendrils deeply implanted in the Arkansas establishment.
* Speaking of politics, in Pennsylvania the prospect of Internet gambling is fading down the stretch, with a tough row to hoe in the 2017 Legislature.
* Glenn Straub has gained an ally in the form of Atlantic City Councilman Kaleem 
Shabazz. The latter has asked the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority to ease up on its landscaping demands of Straub as the latter tries to reopen Revel, even as the 2016 window of opportunity is closing. According to TV station WHYY in Philadelphia, “Shabazz said the city needs jobs, revenue and activity, and, while he appreciates the need to follow regulations, he hopes an accommodation can be made for Revel development.” Straub’s people have chafed at a lack of support from the political establishment (other than Mayor Don Guardian [R]), so Shabazz’s intervention will surely be gladly received.
* The specter of rejected Cedar Crossing Casino continues to bedevil the Iowa city of Cedar Rapids. Although Wild Rose Entertainment, which owns three other casinos in the Hawkeye State, wants to build a $40 million casino (no hotel, no restaurants — it would sit across the street from a Double Tree Hotel & Convention Center) in Cedar Rapids, it is being thwarted by a pair of memoranda of understanding between the city and Cedar Crossing parent Cedar Rapids Development Group. “The city will not enter into negotiations or execute or approve any agreement with any other person, firm or organization or operator, nor will the city make application to or otherwise support an application for a gaming license before the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission within Linn County, Iowa with any third party other than in cooperation with company and non-profit,” is some of the relevant verbiage. Worse still, the agreement with the City of Cedar Rapids runs into late 2019.
“A lot of people put risk, capital, time and energy to put together a proposal, engage engineers, architects and construction companies, required to put forward an excellent big project,” said Linn County Supervisor Brent Oleson, in defense of the memoranda. Cedar Crossing was ultimately nixed by the IRGC for the negative economic impact it would have on nearby casinos. Such issues are irrelevant to Wild Rose for the moment. Executives for the latter claim to be unfazed by the revelation of the memoranda. Wild Rose CEO Tom Timmons said the company wouldn’t go anywhere it wasn’t welcome adding, “If it can’t be worked out, it can’t be worked out. But we hope people will look at the end result. If we have a chance to bring a casino here — and I don’t think that same plan is going to work — what way do you go if it would mean it’s for the best of the city?”
CRDG investor Tami Culver claimed to have been ambushed by Wild Rose. “That would have been respectful to have some kind of knowledge about it,” she sputtered. For now, the IRGC is staying on the sidelines, waiting to see what Cedar Rapids voters have to say. City or county support would be nice but not essential. Mayor Ron Corbett is standing by the memoranda and urging Wild Rose to find some way to reach its goal by cooperating with the CRDG. Given the latter’s umbrage at being denied Cedar Crossing, how promising an avenue is that?
