The Missouri Gaming Commission’s Jan. 27 vote to revoke Pinnacle Entertainment’s gaming license at the downtown President Casino has backers and opponents of the proposed $350 million Riverview Casino complex in north St. Louis County mobilizing.
Pinnacle is likely to appeal the decision, which the commission said was justified given the President’s poor financial performance. But should Pinnacle lose, the gaming license would be the only one available under a state law that caps the number of Missouri casinos at 13.
North County Development LLC, the group behind the proposed Riverview Casino near Spanish Lake, has its eyes on that license. James Harris, a registered lobbyist and former Gov. Matt Blunt’s director of boards and commissions, is representing North County Development interests.
North County Development faces nearly 20 organizations, which have banded together as the Common Sense Coalition to oppose the Riverview Casino proposal. The coalition encompasses a number of community, environmental, conservation and church groups, including the Spanish Lake Community Association and the Audubon Society of Missouri.
The coalition does not appear to have hired a lobbyist but has drummed up significant grass roots opposition to the plan to develop 377 acres of farmland near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.
Meanwhile, Las Vegas-based Pinnacle, which also operates the Lumiere Place casino downtown and the soon-to-open River City Casino in south St. Louis County, has its own team of local lobbyists and promoters helping defend its at-risk gaming license and navigate the political waters here and in the Missouri Capitol.
“We have invested almost $1 billion in this area and have played by all the rules,” Pinnacle spokeswoman Pauline Yoshihashi said last week following the gaming commission’s vote. “We did not pick this fight. We are studying all our legal remedies.”
Pinnacle’s registered lobbyists include LeRoy Grant Jr. of Grant Communications LLC in St. Louis; former state representative Joseph Treadway of St. Louis County; Rodney Boyd, a partner with Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP in St. Louis; John Bardgett Jr. and Kimberly Tuttle of Chesterfield-based John Bardgett & Associates Inc.; and Mark Levison of Lathrop & Gage LLP in St. Louis.
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay is also a vocal opponent of the gaming commission’s move. On Jan. 26 he said closing the President would cost the city 241 jobs and $2 million in annual gaming-related taxes.
In a scathing Jan. 25 letter to the gaming commission, Slay asked, “Is this legally suspect recommendation (to revoke the President’s gaming license) an attempt to move the license somewhere else in the state? Or is this an attempt to throw 241 people out of work and cut needed tax revenues with no backup plan? A secret plan or no plan at all — either possibility is very troubling.”
In Jefferson City, state Rep. Tishaura Jones and Sen. Robin Wright-Jones, both St. Louis Democrats, have introduced bills that would prohibit the commission from revoking a casino’s license because of declining revenue.
The bills are likely to be Harris’ first order of business, and North County Development is counting on his connections in Jefferson City. Harris was a Republican operative who served as former Gov. Blunt’s political director during his 2004 campaign. Blunt then tapped Harris to be his director of boards and commissions. In that job, Harris oversaw more than 200 boards for which the governor had appointing authority, including the Missouri Gaming Commission.
Two of five current gaming commissioners were appointed by Blunt ahead of the commission’s 2006 election of former St. Louis County Executive Gene McNary, a Republican, as its executive director. Two other commissioners’ terms are set to expire April 29, which will give Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, an opportunity to influence McNary’s future as executive director.
Under Blunt, Harris also made all recommendations for state judicial appointments and managed the administration’s initial hiring and job placement. Harris was criticized over several appointments that appeared to be made on the basis of campaign contributions and favorable political support more than job qualifications.
He resigned in 2006 to work on other Republican campaigns and start The J. Harris Co. LLC lobbying firm in Jefferson City.
Harris, who also serves as executive director of Better Courts for Missouri, stirred up fresh controversy Jan. 25 when he urged Republican state senators to intervene in a tort reform case pending before the Missouri Supreme Court.
Harris could not be reached for comment for this story.
North County Development also is represented by Ed Griesedieck III, a St. Louis lawyer with Herzog Crebs LLP. He has been the face of North County Development, which is backed by four principals: Wood River, Ill., attorney Brad Lakin of LakinChapman LLC, his wife, Hallie Lakin, executive Kenneth Goldstein of family owned Argo Products Co. in north St. Louis, and Wood River-based real estate investor Julie McDonald.
Gary Burton, a former Republican state representative from Joplin, also is listed as a lobbyist for North County Development. But Burton said he stopped working with the casino developers last year and forgot to remove them from his list of clients disclosed with the Missouri Ethics Commission.
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