Five companies applied for last Missouri casino license

The five applicants are: Casino Celebration, proposing a facility for St. Louis, North County Development, proposing a casino in Spanish Lake, Isle of Capri-Cape Girardeau, part of St. Louis-based gaming company Isle of Capri Casinos, proposing a us$ 125 million casino in Cape Girardeau, Sunway Gaming, which proposes a casino in Sugar Creek outside Kansas City and Epic Gaming, which also proposes a casino in Sugar Creek.

The commission said no other details are yet available until public disclosure forms are compiled, possibly within the next week.

Seven groups, including the five above, submitted pre-application investment and economic analysis data by a July 15 deadline. The Missouri Department of Economic Development will use the information to help gaming regulators pick a winner. The list of interested parties has narrowed since May, when 15 groups submitted letters of interest.

This is the first time the commission has conducted such a process since voters capped the number of gaming licenses in 2008.

The state’s last gaming license opened up in June when Las Vegas-based Pinnacle Entertainment (closed the President Casino on the Mississippi River at the foot of Laclede’s Landing in downtown St. Louis. Pinnacle also operates the Lumiere Place and River City casinos in St. Louis.

In July, a federal judge denied Pinnacle’s attempt to block St. Louis from trying to land the gaming license and open another casino.