The number of land-based casinos in Missouri will remain at 13, after state voters rejected Amendment 5 on Tuesday (5 November).
If passed, the amendment would have cleared the way for a casino on the Osage River near the Bagnell Dam at the Lake of the Ozarks. But the measure was rejected by a 52%-48% margin on Tuesday with 20 precincts left to report, per the Missouri secretary of state office.
All of the state’s existing casinos sit along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Amendment 5 would have allowed for casino development on or near artificial bodies of water. The Lake of the Ozarks fits that bill, having been built in the 1920s by the US army.
The main proponents of the amendment were Bally’s Corp and the Osage River Gaming and Convention Committee (OGCC). The duo had long proposed a casino for the site and submitted fresh renderings in late September. Bally’s already operates a casino in Kansas City. If Amendment 5 had been approved, other bidders would have also had the opportunity to bid for the licence.
Overall, the defeat erases several years of work by the OGCC to get the issue on the ballot. The opportunity for a new licence emerged in 2009, due to a fire that destroyed the President riverboat casino. By 2018, the OGCC had plans to organise an initiative petition, but was persuaded by Representative Rocky Miller to try and pass the issue as legislation.
The pandemic derailed efforts in 2020 and the legislation subsequently failed to pass in 2022 and 2023. This year, the OGCC opted to go the petition route and ultimately succeeded in getting it on the ballot on 30 August when it survived legal challenges. After this latest defeat, it is unclear whether the group will continue its quest.
Osage Nation’s proposed casino now without competition
Amendment 5’s defeat is a huge victory for the Osage Nation, which is vying for its own casino nearby. The tribe had been a driving factor in opposing both the ballot measure and the previous legislation. Its $60 million (£46.6 million/€55.9 million) development in Miller County would be the first tribal casino in the state.
Given that it is a Class II venue, it does not need state approval, only federal. Stakeholders are still waiting for that approval with no timetable, according to 500 Nations, but the removal of the OGCC proposal now leaves it as the only casino project in the area. The Osage currently operate seven casinos in Oklahoma.
There are no Indian reservations in Missouri, but the tribe claims ancestral heritage to the Lake of the Ozarks. Its website says that its “historical influence in the Lake region is still found today in homages such as City of Osage Beach, Osage County and School of the Osage.”
