Posted on: November 25, 2023, 08:47h.
Final up to date on: November 25, 2023, 08:47h.
The Pope County on line casino license in Arkansas approved by voters via a 2018 statewide poll referendum stays in flux.
The Arkansas Supreme Courtroom final month upheld a decrease decide’s ruling that the Arkansas Racing Fee (ARC) wrongly deemed Cherokee Nation Companies and Legends Hospitality because the winner of the county on line casino license.
Cherokee Nation Companies is the industrial gaming and hospitality unit of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Legends is a stadium concessions supplier partly managed by Arkansas native Jerry Jones.
The state’s excessive courtroom dominated that ARC erred in qualifying the Cherokee/Legends bid as a result of it violated Modification 100 — the 2018 referendum that legalized a on line casino every within the counties of Crittenden, Garland, Jefferson, and Pope. The state Supreme Courtroom stated Modification 100 required bids to return from sole entities, not a consortium such because the one from the Cherokees and Legend.
There have been additionally authorized issues raised about Legends because the firm has no expertise growing, proudly owning, or working a on line casino. Modification 100 stated that solely candidates that may “display expertise in conducting on line casino gaming” ought to qualify for consideration.
Sides Submit Briefs
ARC picked the Cherokee/Legends bid over one different qualifying proposal. That pitch got here from an organization referred to as Gulfside On line casino Partnership, a Mississippi-based riverboat operator.
In response to the Arkansas Supreme Courtroom ruling, ARC requested each side to submit feedback as to how every believes the state ought to proceed in additional concerns of the Pope County on line casino license.
Attorneys representing the Cherokees/Legends bid have requested the state Supreme Courtroom to rethink upholding Pulaski County Circuit Decide Tim Fox’s opinion that the racing fee shouldn’t have thought-about their on line casino tender. Former Arkansas Legal professional Normal Dustin McDaniel, who’s representing the Cherokees, wrote to the Racing Fee that he hopes the Supreme Courtroom will present additional clarification.
“Supreme Courtroom’s opinion is unclear on what steps are required to be taken subsequent,” McDaniel stated.
The Courtroom targeted its consideration completely on the difficulty of getting two names on the license,” he stated. “Twice it speaks of vacating the license that was issued. Nevertheless, the opinion stays silent as as to whether Legends was a certified applicant,” McDaniel wrote.
McDaniel stated the courtroom’s ruling “leaves open the door to an administrative repair.” That might embody the Cherokees and Legends merely resubmitting their bid as a single entity, Legends Resort and On line casino, LLC, McDaniel reasoned.
Attorneys representing Gulfside imagine ARC ought to return to the drafting board and conduct a second bidding spherical.
Native Assist
The 2018 referendum required that bids be accompanied by a letter of assist from the county decide or the county quorum courtroom. That part introduced further authorized wrangling into the Pope County on line casino matter.
The Cherokee/Legends plan has the assist of Pope County Decide Ben Cross. The Gulfside plan submitted its bid with a letter of assist from Ed Gibson, who issued his backing to the plan simply days earlier than he exited the Pope County decide seat in December 2018.
The Cherokees efficiently argued in courtroom, in a separate case that made its solution to the Arkansas Supreme Courtroom, that Modification 100’s language stating that “the” earlier than “county decide” and “county quorum courtroom” refers back to the present decide or courtroom, not a former or retired county decide.
Gulfside attorneys imagine ARC resetting and conducting a second bidding spherical would clear the air and permit Cross and the Pope County Quorum Courtroom to rethink the perfect presentation.
“This can permit all potential on line casino candidates to hunt native assist from Pope County officers and submit an utility to be thought-about on the deserves by the Racing Fee,” Gulfside lawyer Casey Castleberry wrote.