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American Gaming Association touts benefits in Show-Me State as Osage seek new casino

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The American Gaming Association is in St. Louis today for the second stop of their Small Business Jobs Tour, part of the organization’s “Get to Know Gaming” campaign.

“Casino gaming is and always has been a strong community partner in Missouri and across the country where hundreds of thousands of small business jobs are supported,” Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of AGA, said. “The industry exemplifies the American entrepreneurial spirit with a special emphasis on creating good local jobs for American workers both inside and outside our casinos in nearly every state.”

The nationwide tour is meant to highlight casino gaming’s commitment to small businesses around the country. The casino industry is a $240 billion-a-year industry that supports 1.7 million jobs across the U.S. In Missouri alone, the industry has an economic impact of roughly $3.3 billion, employs more than 20,000 people, and supports $836 million in wages throughout the Show-Me State.

Missouri casinos in 2016 gave approximately $324.1 million to the state’s Gaming Proceeds for Education Fund. The fund, which was established by the Missouri Legislature in 1993, distributes money annually to statewide education programs. Also in 2016, approximately $77.7 million in gaming tax and admissions fee revenue was returned to the local governments that host Missouri’s casinos.

All of this lends itself to a story that has received notice in the past few weeks, concerning a potential casino being built in Cuba, Mo. by the Osage Nation.

The Osage Nation is looking to use an exception that lies within the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, which allows a tribe to buy land within their historical reservation boundaries and use it for gaming purposes. The Osage Nation’s historical reservation has been identified as the entire state of Missouri, meaning they could technically purchase land anywhere across the state.

It was reported by Osage News back in January that Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear had revealed three possible sites for possible gaming locations in the Show-Me State. Those three locations were Kimberling City, Cuba, and along the traffic route of Interstate 44.

It seems that their focus is most heavily on Cuba, a city where officials are receptive to the idea of a casino being built. Cuba is also the spot where a 30-foot statue of Osage warriors is being built – with money from the city.

“Are we interested? Yeah,” Dennis Roedemeier, president of the Cuba Development Group, told Tony Messenger of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Am I counting on it? We’re not there yet. The governor has to bless this to move it forward.”

And it seems that Chief Standing Bear and the Osage Nation have been working to try and gain the governor’s favor. Chief Standing Bear told the Gaming Enterprise Board about a $50,000 donation made to the Committee for A New Missouri, Inc., a nonprofit supporting the governor’s agenda, back in December.

Chief Standing Bear told Messenger it was his way of trying to establish a good relationship with Greitens. His hope is that it will lead to the Governor’s blessing and a casino. He says that when he asked Greitens if he would support a Native American casino in Missouri, Greitens responded by saying that if it was good for Missouri and good for the Osage, he would.