Two casino site requests going to city zoning board next month

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, January 11, 2005

[1/11/05]Requests for local zoning approval for two new gaming developments will be taken up next month by the city’s Zoning Board in one of the initial steps toward a new casino or two.

Lakes Gaming Mississippi LLC, a Minnesota company, and Rainbow Development Corporation, an Oklahoma company, will present applications at 5 p.m. Feb. 1 at City Hall Annex. Both boats are planned for sites along the Mississippi River south of Interstate 20.

Rainbow Development Corporation, which developed Rainbow Hotel and Casino at 1380 Warrenton Road, plans to develop the Pot of Gold Casino adjacent to Rainbow, according to a letter from John Barrett, a partner in the corporation.

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That letter and application offer few details, but say the new casino will have approximately the same number of games as Rainbow and an adjacent hotel with suite-styled rooms. Rainbow has about 932 slots.

The site will also feature a floating pavilion accessible to the general public without entering the casino or hotel as well as a recreational park.

Lakes gave public notice in October of intent to make application for a gaming license that included plans for a 40,000-square-foot gaming vessel. The plan calls for 1,500 slot machines and 45 table games.

Next, the companies will have to file an application with the Mississippi Gaming Commission and request a site inspection.

The gaming commission must approve the site before a license is granted. New casinos must also get approval of site development plans and commission approval to proceed.

River-based casinos have been legal here since a 1990 state law and a 1992 local referendum. More than a dozen projects were initially announced, but since the fourth, Rainbow, opened in the summer of 1994, most operators have said they do not believe the local market can support a fifth casino.

The state regulates 29 casinos along the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast, including the four in Vicksburg. Separately, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians operates two casinos near Philadelphia.

Two votes were held in Warren County, the first in 1990, when gaming was defeated by 958 of the 15,358 votes cast, and the second in 1992, when gaming was approved by 651 of 15,270 ballots cast.

The first casino, the Isle of Capri, opened in August 1993; Harrah’s opened in November 1993; Ameristar, February 1994; and Rainbow, July 1994.

Since, the casinos have generated nearly $80 million in local tax revenue to the city, county and school district.

Columbia Sussex, a Kentucky-based company, last year bought the Harrah’s Vicksburg property, which now operates under the name Horizon Casino.