Gaming briefs for March 22, 2005

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 | 11:08 a.m.

Company buys land in St. Louis

Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. has closed on a previously announced purchase of property located along North First Street in downtown St. Louis and adjacent to the company's proposed hotel and casino. The property also is adjacent to the 297-room Embassy Suites Hotel the company has previously agreed to buy.

The Las Vegas-based company said it now owns, has agreed to purchase or has under option to lease about 18 acres of contiguous land for the development of its St. Louis City project.

Internet poker defeated

BISMARCK, N.D. -- The Legislature's dalliance with Internet poker regulation ended abruptly, when a bill to make North Dakota the first state to license cyberspace poker tables got only three Senate votes to support it.

"This is just another vehicle for more gambling in North Dakota, and I'm not so sure we want it," Sen. David Nething, R-Jamestown, said Monday.

The measure lost in the Senate, 44-3, after a brief debate. It squeaked through the House last month, 49-43, and its sponsor, Rep. Jim Kasper, R-Fargo, has been lobbying senators on the measure's behalf.

Bird in hunt for casino

FRENCH LICK, Ind. -- Indiana basketball legend Larry Bird has joined forces with a Texas casino developer hoping to land a contract for a southern Indiana casino.

Nevada Gold & Casinos, Inc. of Houston, Texas, announced Monday that its subsidiary, Nevada Gold Indiana, LLC, has acquired a 75 percent interest in Orange County Development, LLC, whose members include Bird, a French Lick native.

The Indiana Gaming Commission last year originally awarded the contract for the Orange County riverboat casino to a group headed by Donald Trump.

But Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts earlier this month dropped its plans for French Lick, about three months after the company filed for bankruptcy protection.

KENTUCKY

AG opinion reversed

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- The Kentucky Constitution does not have to be amended to allow expanded gambling, Attorney General Greg Stumbo said Monday in a reversal of the office's long-standing position.

Except in very limited circumstances, opinions of the attorney general's office are advisory only. But the opinion will surely be cited by advocates of expanded gambling as the debate resumes in the run up to the 2006 General Assembly.

Four previous opinions from the attorney general, dating back to 1980, have held the constitutional section that prohibits lotteries and other gift enterprises has meant that casinos, slot machines or other forms of gambling were prohibited.

Senator fights casino

NEW ORLEANS -- U.S. Sen. David Vitter is urging Gov. Kathleen Blanco not to make a deal with an Indian tribe seeking a casino in central Louisiana, upbraiding her for having met with the group last fall.

In a letter released by his office Monday, Vitter told Blanco he found it "deeply disturbing" that she had met with the Jena Band of Choctaws last October, as reported last week by the Alexandria Town Talk. Vitter said Blanco made "clear, firm commitments" during the campaign to oppose gambling expansion in Louisiana.

No deal was signed by the governor in October, but the Town Talk last week reported that she agreed to an environment study of a casino site the tribe, a tiny, landless group of about 200, wants in Grant Parish. A comment from Blanco on Vitter's letter was not immediately forthcoming Monday.