The latest on the legal and political mess in Pope County over a proposed casino: Gulfside Casino Partnership, one of the operators hoping to apply for a casino license, filed a request this week in Pulaski County Circuit Court for a summary judgment approving its application and rejecting those of its rivals.

A casino in Pope County was authorized by Amendment 100 to the Arkansas Constitution, passed by state voters in 2018. The amendment requires endorsement by local elected officials in order for the Racing Commission to approve a casino license.  Gulfside argues that its application was the only one of five proposals to properly include such letters of endorsement — although the leaders who did so left office in 2018.

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The only group that applied with the necessary endorsement of current local elected officials in Pope County was a proposal from the Cherokee tribe. However, that approval came after the designated application period under the commission’s rules, leading a judge in a different Pulaski County Circuit Court case to issue a temporary restraining order blocking the commission from approving the Cherokees. The tribe has since re-submitted its proposal, for a $225 million casino, hotel and water park, under a different provision in the commission’s rules in an attempt to pass legal muster.

The Cherokees gained the approval of County Judge Ben Cross and the Quorum Court after greasing the wheels with a promised $38 million in payments to various governments in the county (ignoring voters who passed an ordinance that such an action required approval of county voters). That pay to play arrangement with the Cherokees, a special prosecutor concluded, was negotiated in a series of surreptitious meetings in violation of the Freedom of Information Act, but no charges were filed.

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Gulfside’s filing this week notes that under the original rules of the Racing Commission, endorsements of local officials were valid so long as they came after the amendment allowing the casinos was passed in November 2018 (the amendment itself doesn’t specify). Gulfside secured endorsements from the previous county judge, as well as the previous mayor of Russellville, in late December 2018, in the final days of their terms.

Almost immediately after that, the commission changed the protocol, establishing a new rule in January of last year demanding that the endorsing local officials had to still be in office when the casino applications were submitted to the commission. The state legislature meanwhile passed a law in March establishing the same requirement.

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Gulfside argues that the new rules unconstitutionally impose an additional requirement that is not contained in Amendment 100 passed by voters. The case is set for a hearing March 30.

 

 

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