Lake Of The Ozarks Casino Group Partners With Bally's; Location Revealed
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LAKE OZARK, Mo. — Osage River Gaming and Convention, the investor group angling to build a casino at Lake of the Ozarks, has revealed that it has partnered with Bally's, which operates 15 casinos across 10 states, including one in Kansas City.
The group is working to bring a proposed state constitutional change to the Missouri ballot, which — if approved by voters — would allow a casino on the Osage River. However, the Missouri Gaming Commission would still have the prerogative to approve (or not) the location and operator of any new casino on the Osage River.
The Bally's revelation came in a letter from ORGC to the City of Lake Ozark, presented to the city board of aldermen on Tuesday, Nov. 28.
The letter also identified the specific planned location for the casino: "[approximately] 20 acres of the total 90 acre Eagles' Landing Phase 4 property." It added, "The remaining ground will be developed as a hotel/convention center, restaurants and retail."
Eagles' Landing is a sprawling development zone operated by local developer Gary Prewitt that encompasses both sides of Highway 54, on the edge of Lake Ozark. Currently, only one side of the development has been built-out, with Marcus Theater, Menards, ALDI, Casey's General Store, CVS, and Kohl's. The other side of the highway — including Phase 4 — is currently a quarrying operation.
An RV campground stands between the edge of the Eagles' Landing property and the Osage River, but that likely wouldn't stand in the way of ORGC building a riverboat casino.
Why? Because while Missouri law technically restricts casinos to operating on excursion gambling boats, that doesn't actually mean the casinos have to be on a boat. A casino can be a standard structure built within 1,000 feet of the shoreline, with a few stipulations.
Here's the background...
Not Actually On A Boat
In Missouri, gambling games are only allowed to happen on what state law defines as an "excursion gambling boat" located on the Missouri or Mississippi rivers (see RSMo 313.800).
The original idea of quaint riverboats cruising the scenic waterway while patrons sipped champagne and tossed dice at the craps tables was soon torpedoed by reality: today's Missouri casinos are huge complexes perched on the banks -- or near the banks -- of those two rivers. 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.
The definition of an "excursion gambling boat" got even squishier in 2021, though. Senate Bill 26, signed by the governor, enacts a diverse array of changes to Missouri law. Among them, it changed the definition of an excursion gambling boat to include a "nonfloating facility."
So yes, a gambling boat can be a nonfloating facility, according to Missouri law.
But lest Missourians start dreaming up plans for games of blackjack aboard that forever-grounded boat in their backyards, the law still stipulates a few things:
1. The facility has to be within one thousand feet of the Missouri or Mississippi River. (ORGC investor Tim Hand explained to LakeExpo that the Eagles' Landing Phase 4 property is within 1,000 of the edge of the Osage River floodplain: the Osage's water levels fluctuate more dramatically than the Missouri or Mississippi rivers, due to water releases from nearby Bagnell Dam.)
2. The facility has to be licensed by the Missouri Gaming Commission (like all other excursion gambling boats), which only gives out 13 licenses. Currently all 13 are tied up. AND,
3. Inside or beneath the facility -- somewhere, anywhere -- must be at least 2,000 gallons of water either in an enclosed space or in rigid or semirigid storage containers or structures.
The bill created the definition of a "Nonfloating Facility" as follows:
(20) "Nonfloating facility", any structure within one thousand feet from the closest edge of the main channel of the Missouri or Mississippi River, as established by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, that contains at least two thousand gallons of water beneath or inside the facility either by an enclosed space containing such water or in rigid or semirigid storage containers, tanks, or structures;
But until the state constitution is changed to allow a casino to be built on the Missouri or Mississippi rivers, that won't be possible.
Senate Bill 26 may have made it easier to build such a casino, if (or when) the law constraining excursion gambling boats—floating or nonfloating—to those two rivers is changed. Now, no pretense of a boat is required, just a building, with one of these inside:
From the bill description:
GAMBLING BOATS (Sections 313.800, 313.805, and 313.812)
Current law defines "excursion gambling boat" as a boat, ferry, or other floating facility. This act modifies such definition to include nonfloating facilities, which are defined as any structure within 1,000 feet of the Missouri or Mississippi rivers that contains at least 2,000 gallons of water beneath or inside the facility.
This act also modifies current law relating to the licensure of excursion gambling boats to allow for nonfloating facilities.
