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Group Initiates Signature Campaign To Put Cape Girardeau Casino Issue Before Voters

Posted on June 2nd, 2010

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Fifty six citizens and thirty seven churches are helping a group pass around a petition and gather signatures from registered voters in Cape Girardeau. Doug Austin, spokesman for the group called Quality of Life in Cape Girardeau, said Monday the drive aims to present the petitions with the 2,635 signatures of qualified voters from the city in order to be able to put the question of casino gambling in Cape Girardeau before voters.

Austin said the organization expects to hand over the signatures by July 6, early enough for the signatures to be confirmed and validated so that the casino gambling question can be included in the Nov. 2 general election ballot.

Austin, retired pastor Paul Kabo, and Melvin Gateley, a former council member, tried to ask the city council a couple of times for a vote, but their request was denied twice. Gambling law in the state of Missouri allows 13 casinos. The President Casino, which was forced to hand over its license back to the Missouri Gaming Commission because of below par performance, will close on July 1.

The 13th slot held by the casino operated by Pinnacle Entertainment will soon be available, and the city council is hoping the license would be awarded to Cape Girardeau. In a 1993 ballot, voters in Cape Girardeau rejected a proposal for casino gambling in the city, but seven months after, in November of that year, the same proposal was approved by voters in another close vote.

The Missouri Gaming Commission is now accepting applications for the single available license from developers and investors. Deadline for submission of applications is on September 1. On September 22, the commission will hold a meeting where it will announce the finalists, after which public hearings in each district on the list will ensue. The commission is likely to award the license on Oct 27, its last meeting before the election on Nov. 2.

Three competing developers for the casino project will meet with Cape Girardeau city officials where they will present their plans for the project, each one hoping for an approval and endorsement from the city council. The meeting, initially set for Thursday, has been moved to an unspecified date, but which will be known and announced after the council’s meeting on Monday.

Austin is planning to attend the meeting to keep the council posted on the developments of his group’s petition campaign. He said whether Cape Girardeau is selected as the site of the new casino or not is not the main issue, but the voters’ decision to allow a casino now or in the near future. He said his group has made it clear their move is not an attempt to take away from the city the opportunity to be able to host a casino, but he said a fresh mandate should be taken as the last vote happened 17 years ago.

He said the group’s stance is not one of enmity or hostility, but their aim is just to give voters a say on the issue. He said the issue of allowing casino gambling in the city would be settled once and for all whether voters approve the proposal or not because the scenario could be repeated in the months or years to come if another casino decides to give up its license.

If the group is able to achieve the petition effort’s objective, the city council will be compelled to conduct a debate on the issue of whether to allow a casino in the city at the time that the Missouri Gaming Commission is also tackling the question of where to give the casino license.