Opening of fifth casino in Kansas City pushed back

Tuesday, Dec. 10, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

At a hastily called news conference Monday, the Station Casino Kansas City's general manager, Dave Fendrick, announced that the planned December opening of the still unlicensed casino was postponed. He acknowledged that the Missouri Gaming Commission had never given the company even a tentative opening date.

Tom Irwin, the gaming commission's executive director, said he told Joe Canfora, Station's president for Midwest operations, to expect a January ribbon cutting - at best.

The news conference came in the wake of another Station executive's criticism of the Missouri regulatory agency at a gaming convention in Las Vegas last week.

"We are ready to open December 18," Glenn C. Christenson, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Station Casino Inc., told industry executives at the annual American Gaming Summit.

"Unfortunately, the Missouri Gaming Commission doesn't have the capacity and staff to investigate everything (by then)," Christenson said.

That comment - plus other "opens in December" pronouncements in Station Casino advertisements - didn't sit well with Irwin.

"I take a little umbrage that they would say we don't have the capacity," Irwin said. "We certainly do have the capacity, and we have the staff."

"They'll open when the (Missouri Highway Patrol) sergeant in charge of the investigation says he's ready."

Fendrick said he was unaware of Christenson's remarks but added: "I haven't seen any foot dragging (by the Gaming Commission) at my level."

Similar shoving matches over opening dates occurred twice this year in connection with Harrah's second gambling boat at its North Kansas City casino.

Invitations sent to guests for a sneak preview and then a grand opening party also were termed "presumptuous" by Irwin. Harrah's promoted grand-opening date was pushed back 24 hours by state officials.

Irwin said the state's investigation of Station Casino, its key executives and about 2,000 employees involved in gambling and cash-handling operations is in its final stages.

In addition to the mandatory background checks on about two-thirds of the company's estimated 3,000 employees, the casino also must undergo extensive shakedown investigations by state regulatory officials, the IRS and others.

About 2,000 of the casino's employees have been on the payroll for a few weeks now, Fendrick said, and more are being added every day.

The $255 million Station Casino complex is about a mile east of Interstate 435 on the north bank of the Missouri River. At 140,000 square feet, its twin casinos will be the largest riverboat gambling project in the United States and one of the top three or four largest casino gaming floors in the nation.