Kansas Speedway Race For Casino In Kansas Takes Another Turn

The Kansas Speedway and Penn National Gaming were preparing for a battle to run a state-owned casino in Wyandotte County, Kansas. Instead of going head to head, however, the two companies decided to team up and offer one proposal on Thursday.

Originally, the Cordish Company was the selected partner for the Speedway, but that changed this week. Penn National was considered to be the front runner for the casino license, but now it appears that with the Kansas Speedway as their partner, it is a virtual lock.

Penn National has already won the rights to run a Kansas casino the last time around in the bidding. They pulled out of their contract, however, when they decided they could not offer a product that could compete with a neighboring casino in Oklahoma.

The new proposal from the Kansas Speedway will be slightly different in appearance than the one they had planned with the Cordish Company. The original plan was for the theme of the casino to be Hard Rock, but now the casino will be Hollywood-themed like other Penn National facilities.

Now that there is no longer a competing proposal, it will be up to the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission to approve the combined proposal. If approved, the casino would be built next to the Speedway in two phases. The first phase would be the casino, and the second phase would include a hotel. The cost of the project is expected to be $361 million.

September 10, 2009
Posted By April Gardner
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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