President Casino Closed Due To Mississippi River Rising

Pinnacle Entertainment reached an agreement to close the President Casino for good by July. On Sunday, however, the casino was closed because of a rising Mississippi River. The casino will re-open once the flooding subsides.

"We've been monitoring the Mississippi River levels daily, which reached thirty-two feet sometime Saturday," said Chris Strobbe, General Manager of the President Casino. "We felt it was best for the safety of our guests and our employees to temporarily suspend our operations until the flood waters recede."

Once the flooding has gone down, employees will work to remove debris that was brought on by the flooding. When the debris is removed, the casino will re-open, but at this time there is not word on when that will occur.

The President only has a couple of months left before it is closed forever. Pinnacle had originally fought to keep the casino open and retain the gaming license, but they reached a settlement with Missouri gaming regulators earlier this month.

As part of the settlement, Pinnacle agreed to close the casino by July 31st. In exchange, the gaming regulators will not pursue any penalties. Pinnacle has two other properties in St. Louis, and may, in the future, go after the license they are vacating.

The state of Missouri only allows a certain number of casino licenses, and with all of them taken, the vacated President Casino license becomes valuable. The gaming regulators have given developers until May 1st to express their interest in obtaining the license.

March 29, 2010
Posted By Terry Goodwin
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
Submit News!

Supposed Slot Error Costs Colorado Gambler $42 Million
Vancouver Continues Casino Expansion In Canada
Parx Plans To Add 1,000 Jobs Through Casino Expansion
St. Louis Looking To Keep Casino License In The City
New Planned Casino Could Bring Hundreds Of Jobs To Mississippi