Kansas Casino Plan Being Withdrawn by Penn
Posted on September 13, 2008 - Filed Under Casino Articles, Casino games, Gambling News
Penn National Gaming Inc. that planned to operate a casino in Cherokee County of Kansas City has given up its plans. It happened to be the only company that expressed a great interest in operating a state-owned casino.
The company said that the proposed plan failed to compete with the casino located closely to the state line in Oklahoma. This casino close to the state line in Oklahoma is run by Quapaw Tribe and has been inaugurated this summer.
Penn has put the blame on a Kansas law that has been enacted in 2007. According to this law, each of the four counties would have a single state-owned casino. The law enacted by the legislators and officials of Southeast Kansas has been also heavily blamed by several other casino owners.
A contract was approved last month by the review board of a state casino for Cherokee County casino between the Kansas Lottery and Penn at Wyomissing, Pa. The new gambling was supposed to be owned by the Kansas Lottery.
According to Vice President of Penn, Eric Schippers, the Quapaw Tribe was already enjoying the benefits of opening the casino first apart from lower tax rates. About $225 million would have been invested by Penn over 12 years.
Schippers also said that the legislature failed to see the prospect behind their plans and also the speed with which it was made. Penn was eagerly looking forward to make the thing happen although there was a very high competition in the gambling market.
Penn had put forward the argument that opening two casinos for the casino lovers is supposed to make the financial condition of the Cherokee County much stronger.
They set themselves on a venture of connecting their plan of opening a casino in Cherokee County to opening a casino in Sumner County near Wellington. However, Penn failed to win over the contract of opening a casino near Wellington.
A group that was led by Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. was chosen by the casino review board to open a casino in the Sumner County.
The decision taken up by Penn to withdraw from Cherokee County has led to a heavy frustration for Rep. Doug Gatewood, who is a Democrat from Columbus. He still strongly believes that some other casino company is going to come up.
However, Gatewood knows that Penn’s decision receiving support from Cherokee County Commission has de-motivated several other casino companies from coming up with their plans.
