Lake Of The Ozarks Casino Bill Is A Gamble, But Supporters Say A Casino Is Coming, One Way Or Another

“It’s the bill that won’t die,” says Rocky Miller of his HJR 87, the bill that could bring casino gambling to the Lake of the Ozarks area (but not the Lake itself). Groups are lining up to kill it, Miller told LakeExpo, but the bill cleared the Rules committee in the Missouri House with a 6-1 vote on Thursday, Feb. 13.

The bill is a Joint Resolution, which means it’s a resolution that must clear both the Missouri House and Senate, and then would be placed on the November ballot for voters to approve. (The full bill text is here. Track its progress here.) In short, if passed by voters, the resolution would allow gambling to happen on excursion gambling boats or floating facilities on or within 1,000 feet of the Osage River, between Bagnell Dam and the confluence with the Missouri River.

The requirement that the floating casino be within 1,000 feet of the specified river means the casino wouldn’t technically have to operate on the river. Isle of Capri in Kansas City was built in 1996 on a small lake about 400 feet from the Missouri River. The lake was built specifically for floating the casino, and the whole build (lake, casino, and all) cost $110 million.

HJR 87 has been—unsurprisingly—controversial, and Miller said some have accused him of simply being pro-gambling. “I don’t care, you can think that,” he said. “But to be honest, I’m for economic development that makes sense for the area… and if done correctly, it could make sense for the area.” However, Miller says he filed the bill as a defensive action against a possible citizen’s initiative petition (CIP). A CIP could also put the issue to Missouri voters, if it garnered enough signatures, and a group called Osage River Gaming has announced their intent to try for a CIP if Miller’s bill fails. In a press release, Osage River Gaming wrote, “Our polling indicates that if such a measure reaches the voters this fall, it will likely pass. We encourage the legislature, both the House and Senate, to pass HRJ 87. In the unfortunate event HJR 87 fails, our group has the appropriate resources and is prepared to circumvent the legislature and undertake a citizens’ ballot initiative for the same purpose. One way or the other, we will prevail.”

But Miller said the devil’s in the details, and a CIP would likely have broad or vague language. “The problem is, it’s an easy pitch,” he explained. “‘Do you want casino gambling in Lake Ozark?’” Miller says a “yes” vote on a CIP could leave the Lake area with less control over what kind of casino comes to the area, and where. Hence his bill.

Miller points out even if the law passes, it wouldn’t immediately land a casino on the Osage River, since the 1992 law that allows casinos in Missouri caps the number of them at 13. There are currently 13 licensed casinos in the state, and all of Missouri’s casinos are on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. The closest to Lake of the Ozarks and the Osage River is Boonville’s Isle of Capri.

Missouri’s Casinos

St. Louis & Region

Ameristar - St. Charles

Hollywood Casino St. Louis - Maryland Heights

Lumière Place Casino

River City Casino

Kansas City & Region

Ameristar - KC

Argosy Casino - Riverside

Harrah’s - North KC

Isle of Capri - KC

Cape Girardeau

Century Casino - Cape Girardeau

Caruthersville

Century Casino - Caruthersville

La Grange

Mark Twain Casino

St. Joseph

St. Jo Frontier Casino

Boonville

Isle of Capri - Boonville

Opposition

The Casinos

Miller says those casinos are actually some of the biggest opponents of HJR 87. “Casinos don’t like what I’m doing, because they’ve got theirs and they don’t want anybody to have anything else,” he said. Missouri’s 13-casino cap was imposed by voters via Proposition A, aka The Missouri Gambling Loss Limits Act, in November of 2008. Miller says that limit amounts to a geographical bias against places like Lake of the Ozarks where, being a tourism hotbed, a casino developer might be interested in setting up shop.

Meanwhile, Miller said resort entities in the Lake of the Ozarks area have already been contacted him, expressing interest in the possibility of a casino here—even if it couldn’t technically be on the Lake and would have to be on the Osage River. “The door’s been kicked open,” he said, “and people are looking at it.”

The Osage River Gaming group argues a casino at Lake of the Ozarks makes sense, and suggested the Lake area could share in the economic benefits a casino might bring: “Presently, there are 13 riverboat gaming casinos in Missouri. The industry employs nearly 10,000 people with an annual payroll of $320 million. Industry annual revenue in the state exceeds $1.5 billion… Lake of the Ozarks is undisputedly the largest and most dominant tourist destination in Missouri, and perhaps the entire Midwest. The entire lake economy is centered on recreation and entertainment; yet the citizens, businesses, and tourist to this great vacation spot have no access to gaming and casino entertainment and the associated ancillary activities…”

Community Concerns & Moral Hazard

Miller acknowledges some fear casinos will bring the wrong kind of crowd to the Lake. But he points to communities like Cape Girardeau and Boonville. “It didn’t ruin those places,” he said.

In 2002, as the Osage Indian tribe explored the possibility of putting a land-based casino at Lake of the Ozarks, community leaders and local pastors stood together against it, citing practical as well as moral arguments. Eighteen years later, it’s not clear whether Miller’s bill will meet with the same level of opposition. But he says he can appreciate if someone wants to oppose the expansion of gambling purely from a moral standpoint. “I don’t have a moral problem with gambling,” he said, adding he thinks anything done to excess can create a moral hazard. But Miller said if someone opposes gambling morally, he thinks that’s at least a fair and honest reason to be against it. His frustration comes from those who say they oppose it for other reasons, when he suspects deep down they’re simply opposed to gambling. “It bothers me,” he said, when opponents pretend to oppose casinos for one reason but really oppose it for another.

Even if the bill is passed, he’s not sure a casino would happen, or at least not with the current state of things.

“As dysfunctional as our area is when it comes to funding things like this, I don’t see” the Lake area being able to come together to put together a coherent proposal to the gaming commission to fund the construction of this.

Miller sees his bill as a pragmatic decision: one that gives the legislature a small amount of control over what he thinks is the near inevitability of a casino at Lake of the Ozarks. But he acknowledges the “bill that won’t die” is still, at best, a crap shoot: “so far the legislative body has not been very smart in [acting on] things like this.” In other words, the House almost never wins.