Ameristar Casinos has pulled the plug on $100 million or more in renovations and expansion of its Kansas City riverboat complex, including the addition of a hotel tower, taking a $4.5 million write-down in the process. It cited a combination of factors in its decision, which came during a quarter which saw profits come in 30% below Wall Street expectations.
One factor, of course, the specter of casinos across the state line in Kansas. The other is blow from closer to home. Earlier this week, the Missouri Gaming Commission gave unanimous approval to a 14th casino license. The casino would be in nearby Sugar Creek and so far the only applicant is a Des Moines company, Wild Rose Entertainment.
Ameristar must now pin its hopes on a bill by Missouri House Rules Committee Chairman Shannon Cooper that would cap the number of Missouri casino licenses at 13. In return, loss limits would be repealed. It’s a foot race to March 19, when the 14th license will be awarded.
Ameristar execs evinced a sense of betrayal, with CEO John Boushy saying they were “really scratching our heads trying to understand the decision-making criterion being used by the Missouri Gaming Commission.” The company fears losing $60 million a year in business to Sugar Creek alone.
With a nod to Wild Rose’s plan for a casino costing one-third as much as Ameristar’s, company co-chairman Gordon Kanofsky railed at the commissioners: “After requiring and encouraging operators to invest in their properties as they have and then destroy their ability to make a return on that investment by allowing a bare-bones facility in the marketplace, it just doesn’t seem fair.”
End of an era? Former Gov. Evan Mecham (R-AZ), impeached 20 years ago, died yesterday. His signal accomplishment was to unilaterally revoke the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, a move that brought opprobrium and boycotts upon the state of Arizona (as did Mecham’s use of racially offensive language). Today an African American is the Democratic frontrunner for president and Mecham is virtually forgotten outside Arizona. We’ve come a long way.
