Casino developer interested in Cape, mayor says

A casino company came calling last week seeking endorsement for a riverboat gambling application for Cape Girardeau, Mayor Jay Knudtson told the city council Monday night.

During a work session before his final regular business meeting leading the council, Knudtson said the company is a well-established casino operator with licenses in six states. The company owns a 34,000-square-foot floating casino four stories tall it wants to dock here before establishing facilities on shore, he said.

Knudtson would not reveal the name of the company.

Cape Girardeau and any other city along the Mississippi or Missouri rivers must file an “expression of interest” by May 1 with the Missouri Gaming Commission. The commission will have one gambling license to award after July 1, when Pinnacle Entertainment closes the President Casino in St. Louis. Any application from a casino company that doesn’t have the support of local government is considered unlikely to win the license.

With the press of time, the consensus of the council was that the city should draft a generic letter endorsing the idea of bringing a casino to town without endorsing any particular proposal.

“We do not need to make any decision about gambling out of desperation,” Knudtson said.

In a meeting Friday with Knudtson and city manager Scott Meyer, a casino representative said “they were extremely excited about Cape Girardeau as a prospect,” Knudtson told the council.

But with the May 1 deadline rapidly approaching and a changeover in city leadership scheduled to begin with Tuesday’s election, he wondered aloud if a complete review of the company’s ideas for Cape Girardeau can be completed in time. Without such a review, he said, an endorsement “could be something that is difficult to give.”

Cape Girardeau voters approved bringing a casino boat to the city in 1993. While extensive work was done at that time, no casino license was granted. Two local businessmen, David Knight and Jim Riley, sought to revive the idea in 2008 but a statewide initiative limiting the number of licenses stopped that effort. They have begun pushing their idea again lately with the opening of a license opportunity but have not announced any casino partnerships.

The developer who met with Knudtson and Meyer said his company does not need the acreage amassed by Knight and Riley along North Main Street, Knudtson said.