Supreme Court to Decide Who Builds Russellville Casino

The Arkansas Supreme Court will decide the fate of building the fourth casino in Pope county.

The Arkansas Racing Commission granted a license to The Gulfside Casino Partnership of Mississippi and the  Arkansas Racing Commission last year, but Cherokee Nation Businesses has officially challenged a letter of support to the Gulfside signed by Pope County Judge Jim Ed Gibson.

The Supreme Court opened its meeting on Thursday and is expected to rule soon.

The Racing Commission initially rejected Gulfside’s application, citing laws that required the venue to appear in the district judge or a quorum in the office when applying for licenses. But the lower court ruled that those requirements were unconstitutional, finding that the rules had been improperly added to the country’s constitutional amendment regarding the games that voters approved in 2018. The amendment requires a letter of support but does not set out the conditions for delivery. Gibson was out of office when Gulfside applied for his license in May 2019.

Following the lower court’s decision, the license was granted in June 2020 in Gulfside, operating the Gulfport’s Island View Casino Resort, which has the largest Mississippi gaming complex and nearly a thousand hotel rooms.

The CNB has built and operated nearly 10 casinos which Include the popular Hard Rock Casino. A CNB spokesman thanked “the unwavering support of Pope County Commissioner Ben Cross,” and said CNB had reached a binding agreement on economic development with Pope County in August 2019, which included an earlier investment of more than $ 38 million, and a small project guarantee. of $ 225 million. The Pope County Quorum has recently advised Cross on his actions in the case.

Casey Castleberry, attorney for the Gulfside Casino Partnership said that we were the first organization to think of a river-valley-styled casino.

Castleberryberry said the Mississippi presidency was confident in her case, including that Gibson’s letter met all legal requirements.

Gulfside, which is organizing a $ 254 million building called River Valley Casino Resort, installed Nabholz Corporation of Conway and AnderCorp LLC of Gulfport to lead the way of the construction. The ambitious and megaproject will include 80,000 sq. feet of play space and will serve more than 1,500 permanent jobs.

The CNB is planning to invest $225 million that includes a hotel with 50 rooms and 1500 electronic gaming.

To charge itself “as the right choice for Papa County,” CNB included CDI contractors from Little Rock, who completed the Saracen Casino Annex in Pine Bluff in October 2019. Napoli and Suffolk Construction of Dallas built a large $ 350 million Saracen Casino.

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