Kansas Lottery Begins Another Long Casino Application Process

The state of Kansas trusted the state Lottery Commission to come up with four possible suitors to run state owned casinos in Kansas. Of the four that the Commission picked, three have pulled out of their deals to build the casinos.

Now, the Commission is going back to the drawing board in hopes of finding themselves three developers that can follow up on making the casinos a reality. On Thursday the Commission authorized the re-opening of the application process for two areas.

The Northeast and South-Central gaming zones will be the focus of the second application process. Developers will be allowed to resubmit proposals, and new proposals will also be accepted.

The original process was drawn out for so long by the state that the economy began to play a major role in why two of the three original contract winners pulled out. The third company, Penn National, pulled out because they were afraid they could not compete with a neighboring casino.

"Even though the Commission has been burned over the past few months, they still believe they will succeed in bringing the four casinos to Kansas. "Hopefully we can start it again," said Director of Gaming Facilities Keith Kocher. He was speaking of the application process.

December 12, 2008
Posted By Terry Goodwin
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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