As Saracen Casino Resort starts to hit its stride, it’s hard not to feel a little sorry for the people in Pope County.
That county got the same voter-approved green light that Jefferson County got in 2018 to go forward with a casino. But if you Google “pope county casino,” one of the headlines that links to a story written earlier this month by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette says: “Casino ruling near; dispute set to continue.”
That has been the running theme there for many, many months.
Eventually, there will be enough lawsuits and countersuits and appeals and rulings that the bitter disputes will be settled and there will be a casino. But as we all know — and as is fully apparent — things are not rushed through the court system, so we doubt any dirt will be turned on a structure anytime soon.
“It would be pure speculation on my part to guess what may happen in court,” Ben Cross, current county judge of Pope County, told the statewide paper earlier this month. “But one thing is relatively assured: It will be appealed again. I don’t think anything will be resolved.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
In the meantime, every day that Pope County does not have a casino is a day of lost revenue and a day of lost employment for locals.
The experience over here has been quite the opposite. For a town that struggles at times with the concept of moving forward, the casino has been an example of how to do it right.
When the Quapaw Nation got the go ahead, officials quickly opened an “annex,” a smaller sister to what was to come. When the bigger sister casino opened, it was in the middle of a pandemic. There was nothing to be done about that except move ahead.
All in all, the casino has become an unprecedented windfall for the area, as evidenced by the business’s revenue and tax figures reported by the state.
Again, while the Pope County folks are enjoying the view from inside one courtroom after another and someone is racking up lots of legal bills, the casino here is employing some 800 workers and sending millions upon millions of dollars into state, city and county coffers.
In the 20 months the casino has been open, the state reports that the business has paid close to $14 million in taxes. More than a million of that has gone to Jefferson County, and Pine Bluff has reaped what is approaching $3 million.
And something we’ve noticed, too, when you walk through the place — folks look like they’re having fun, whether they’re gambling or dining. Oh, and let’s not forget the new fire station the casino threw in for free.
Pine Bluff has a lot on its plate now. On the one hand, there’s a downtown that’s being spiffed up. There’s also a couple of plans on the table to make that area more attractive to local folks as well as to tourists from outside the area. On the other end, the city has some real and perceived problems that were highlighted by a recent survey. Every city that cares about itself has issues to work on, so we are not unique there.
So a big pat on back to everyone who contributed to pulling the casino together so seamlessly. In that regard, we are unique, and goodness, it’s paying handsomely. It was just hard not to notice our own good fortune, while Pope County languishes.