Casino news from http://www.kansascity.com/
Don’t bet a bundle on that new plan for a casino in tiny Rockaway Beach, Mo., near Branson.
Two years ago, Missouri voters soundly rejected a constitutional amendment to expand riverboat gambling beyond the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. There’s no reason to think many have changed their minds.
The nation’s casino establishment apparently agrees. Rockaway Beach officials recently solicited about 70 gaming and real estate development firms to submit proposals for a downtown casino complex on the banks of Lake Taneycomo and the White River.
One company responded.
Las Vegas-based Barden Development Inc. proposed a $144 million facility that would include dining, retail and a 57,000-square-foot casino with more than 1,300 slot machines and 41 table games. The privately held firm is controlled by industry veteran Don H. Barden, who operates casinos in Indiana, Mississippi and Colorado.
But Barden’s firm has been making appearances recently on various credit watch and “troubled companies” lists as its competition in various markets heats up while its cash flow wilts. The company has slashed promotional spending and laid off more than 300 workers.
Two years ago, a Springfield trucking firm with U.S. casino interests poured more than $13 million into its ill-fated bid to develop a Rockaway Beach casino.
A Barden executive recently told me his company was prepared to mount a similar effort to place a similar constitutional amendment on the 2008 ballot.
With Barden scratching and clawing for market share and margin these days, betting millions of dollars on a long shot in Missouri seems unlikely, if not unwise.
Missouri home
For the record, Isle of Capri Casinos last week officially became a Missouri-based gaming company.
Isle last week announced completion of its corporate headquarters relocation to St. Louis.
The international gaming firm got its start in Iowa and operated for more than a decade from corporate headquarters in Biloxi, Miss., until Hurricane Katrina blew into town.
Isle becomes Missouri’s second casino company. The first was St. Joseph-based Grace Entertainment, which was sold last year to Las Vegas-based Herbst Gaming after the death of founder Bill Grace.
Slot shock
Caesars Indiana recently lost $487,000 in two days when one slot machine’s credit meter multiplied by 10 times the amount of money players put in. Many cashed out — fast.
The Indiana Gaming Commission blamed the problem on a software glitch that incorrectly set the game for play in the Philippines and converted the value of American cash.
Could the same thing happen in Missouri?
“Yes,” said Missouri Gaming Commission slot guru Clarence Greeno. “But we have measures in place that would have caught it.”
Greeno’s staff of 10 electronic game technicians baby-sit all 17,733 slot machines in the state watching for such errors.
In Missouri, repair and maintenance protocols require game devices to be test played before being put into public play.
They have the same rules in Indiana, but slot technicians there skipped those tests “to save time,” according to Indiana gaming authorities.
Now, Caesars owner Harrah’s Entertainment faces a disciplinary investigation, and players who can be identified may be confronted to return their gains.
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