Missouri voters next week could authorize the building of a casino at the Lake of the Ozarks.
Amendment 5 would allow the Missouri Gaming Commission to issue an additional license for a casino, which would be built on the Osage River near Bagnell Dam. John Hancock is spokesman for the Osage River Gaming and Convention Committee.
“Well, you’re talking about a year-round attraction, which is something that the Lake community has needed for a very long time,” Hancock told Missourinet. “It’s going to be just a gem of a facility. Bally’s Entertainment, who is our partner in this has a long history of building really phenomenal facilities.”
Current state law only allows licensed casinos to exist along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, and limits the number of casino licenses to 13.
“Unlike many places in the state, the Lake of the Ozarks is familiar to everybody,” Hancock said. “I think everybody will appreciate that a year-round entertainment area is going to be just a tremendous enhancement to that whole experience that is the Lake of the Ozarks.”
Hancock said 100% of tax revenues from the Bally’s casino would go towards early childhood literacy programs in public schools, which is estimated to be more than $14 million a year.
“When you look at dropout rates and crime rates in school districts, a lot of education experts point to the lack of early childhood development,” he said. “We believe that this facility and the revenues it generates are gonna have a really positive effect on the entire state.”
Osage Nation, a Native American tribe in Oklahoma, opposes the plan because it’s also trying to build a casino on land it owns at the Lake of the Ozarks.
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