Unlike Nevada towns like Vegas and Reno where different establishments line up in the same block for casual pedestrian business- Missouri laws require the casinos be near the Missouri River. Locally- four houses exist- Argosy in Riverside- Harrah's in North Kansas City and the Ameristar and Isle of Capri in Kansas City itself.
The closest casinos are Harrah's and Isle of Capri at about 2 miles- but are separated by the Muddy and railroad yards- in other words- you need to have or secure ground transportation to get to any of the KC area joints.
With a state-mandated loss limit of $500 per 2-hour "session"- the Ameristar has led the market in revenue for at least 3 years. Each local casino also covers the state-mandated $2 admission fee per player.
Three of the 4 casinos now have on-site upper-class hotels. The Ameristar is the most lavish of K.C.'s casinos- built as the Kansas City Station Casino in the late 1990's- it has an enclosed streetscape mall area with restaurants for all tastes and price ranges as well as a multi-screen cinema- concert venue and child care services.
Now comes the competition. Bids for a "destination" casino have been taken in Kansas City- KS.. Minimum was $250-million- or just below the cost of building Missouri's Ameristar complex. The bids received were of lavish resort-like casinos costing upwards of three-quarters of a billion dollars.
This is going to draw away many Kansas and Missouri gamblers- at least temporarily- out of curiosity if noting else. More importantly- it's going to draw the "high rollers" since Kansas casinos will have no loss limits. This of course is not counting slot machines allowed at the Woodlands dog and pony track- nor any other casinos planned such as the Wyandott People.
The Missouri side casinos are going to suffer short-term at the least. I believe at least one will wash out- and the one I think that will go would not be good for KC-MO revenues: the Isle of Capri.
The Isle has no hotel- although plans for one have been on the table for at least 2 years now. The Isle also has the lowest attendance and revenue in the market. The owners are not large corporations like those who own the Ameristar and Harrah's- better able to sustain during a drop in players for any extended length of time.
Kansas City once had 3 casinos- Sam's Town closed not long after the massive StationAmeristar opened. The Metro King of TIF could suffer a sizable chunk of revenue loss if it were to lose one of it's 2 remaining casinos.
On the bright side- maybe an empty Isle of Casino property could be developed into something useful/interesting in conjunction with Riverfront Park. A new home for the steamboat Arabia?
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