Kansas Casino Gambling Fiasco Continues With Bid Rejection

The Kansas casino gambling fiasco has been ongoing for several years now, and it does not appear headed towards a resolution anytime soon. On Tuesday, the Kansas Lottery rejected an offer from Ozark Trail Gaming that would have brought a casino to Cherokee County.

Cherokee County is one of the four zones that was approved several years ago in Kansas for a state owned casino. In the time since voters approved the casinos, the Kansas Lottery has been hit with a combination of poor decision making, and unfortunate economic circumstances.

The state of Kansas went through the bidding process and chose four developers to build the state owned casinos. For various reasons, three of the four developers backed out of their deals with the state.

Penn National felt that their casino offering could not compete with a neighboring Oklahoma tribal casino. Other developers pointed to the economic recession and the drying up of the credit market as their reason to bail.

Whatever the case may have been, Kansas was left with only one casino in the works, in Dodge City. The state has gone back to the drawing board, and has once again accepted bids.

The Ozark Trail bid was rejected because of their lack of experience in running a casino, and also a shortcoming in available funding. Applicants in this zone have until January 19th to turn in their bids.

November 26, 2009
Posted By Terry Goodwin
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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