The Rejected Suitor
Choctaw
From the first half of 2019 through late in 2021, casino “suitors” pursued the single casino license that was available in Pope County, Arkansas.
Competing claims from two of the “suitors” for the license, Gulfside Casino Partnership (Gulfside) and Cherokee Nation Businesses (CNB), have been litigated through the Arkansas courts, with the license finally going to CNB.
Two others, Warner Gaming [Hard Rock franchise] and Kiel Management of Iowa [Elite], disappeared from the scene in 2019 once they realized that they had no options left in Pope County.
And then there’s Choctaw.
Choctaw Casinos & Resorts (Choctaw) has been like a suitor that won’t take “no” for an answer.
Rejected in June 2019 by the Arkansas Racing Commission (ARC) for lack of the required local option documents, they were decidedly unhappy when Pope County later chose CNB and its new partner, Legends Hospitality, over them.
In October 2019, when Russellville started reviewing casino applicants, Choctaw was back—as was Warner Gaming and Elite.
Choctaw and Hard Rock, in particular, were disgruntled after they didn’t get the resolution of support from the county.
(CNB only submitted a brief proposal and it was decided they could not be considered by the committee.)
Choctaw, though, was the only one without an endorsement that opened an office downtown and rented a small fleet of advertising panel trucks to run around town and get in everyone’s way.
Russellville picked Elite.
Elite was “… a small company with a whole lot less money and only a history of good business practices. The committee chose good work ethics and how the company treats people who worked for them.” (Kelly Goocher)
When a new application period was opened by the Racing Commission, Choctaw and CNB submitted new applications
Choctaw still didn’t have an endorsement from local officials.
Choctaw’s last hope for acquiring the coveted Pope County casino license died in 2020 when the Racing Commission “abandoned” the second application period after Judge Wendell Griffen issued a temporary restraining order halting license application consideration. There is no provision in the Arkansas Casino Gaming Rules for a second application period.
Good Cause
The only way left for any of the casino license “suitors” to submit an application was to show “good cause” for why their application should be accepted.
CNB could do that.
Choctaw couldn’t.
But Choctaw wasn’t done.
At the end of November 2021, Choctaw filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit brought by Gulfside against the ARC alleging that Legends (CNB’s subsidiary) wasn’t qualified to possess a casino license under the Casino Gaming Rules
Gulfside’s likely motive for their lawsuit is to give Gulfside an opportunity to get a legitimate endorsement from local officials and reapply for the casino license under “good cause.”
Not gonna happen.
That’s probably Choctaw’s reason, too, though they “say” they’re doing it because they stand to lose $12M a year because of the Pope County casino’s proximity to their Pocola casino.
It’s 92 miles by road between the two sites.
So what does this have to do with Fair Play For Arkansas 2022?
(We ain’t them)
At the very least Choctaw and “Fair Play”—or whatever name they use, depending on the circumstances—are fellow travelers in not wanting CNB to have the casino license for Pope County.
In 2020, Pope County quorum court candidates opposed to the casino received money from PACs funded by Capitol Advisors Group (CAG), a lobbying firm that is a client of Choctaw.
In 2019, ethics violation complaints were filed against three incumbent quorum court justices by a Jacksonville attorney alleged to be romantically involved with the CAG general counsel who signed as the “PAC Officer” on the four PACs formed solely to fund Pope County political candidates.
The Arkansas Ethics Commission unanimously voted to dismiss two complaints and allowed the Jacksonville attorney to withdraw the third complaint.
The attorney that filed the complaints and the CAG general counsel recently became engaged in NYC’s Central Park.
On August 13, 2019, a CAG partner addressed the quorum court on behalf of Choctaw appealing for the court to follow an ordinance that had been determined to be impossible to implement, promising to submit a proposal they hoped could be competitive. He was followed by an individual that’s involved in “Fair Play” and in all of its previous incarnations saying the ordinance was the law of the land and had to be followed.
A law that is superseded by another law or by the state constitution has no weight. The ordinance was subsequently repealed and found to be unconstitutional.
In December 2021, after two individuals behind Fair Play failed to appear at a special called quorum court meeting where they were on the agenda to speak, the same CAG partner addressed the court bringing up old, inaccurate allegations on behalf of Choctaw.
After he spoke, a former justice and a currently serving mayor refuted his statements.
Update: This page was originally published early in 2022. Since then, Choctaw has contributed well over $3.3 million to Fair Play For Arkansas – 2022. It is believed they also contributed dark money to the Pope County political campaign for the decisive Republican preferential primary, where their effort was probably ineffectual, given the results.
Fellow travelers or collaborators… sometimes unlikely coalitions form when their purposes align:
The Rejected Suitor
and the
Pope County People Against Change.