Every time there’s a rustle of activity at Saracen Casino Resort, we can’t help but be reminded of how far along this outfit is compared to the one in Pope County. If they were cars, Saracen would be going 90 and the one in Pope County would, well, there’s not one, so there goes the analogy.
Back in 2018, the state’s voters approved four casino licenses. Two were for the established betting houses, one in Hot Springs (Garland County) and the other in West Memphis (Crittenden County). The two new ones were for a casino in Jefferson County — the one going 90 — and one in Pope County, the nonexistent one.
Where Mayor Shirley Washington and Jefferson County Judge Gerald Robinson got their heads together with the Saracen folks and put a casino in motion almost immediately after that election (remember the quaint little casino annex that was located in an old convenience store?), Pope County folks, armed with lawyers and availing themselves of the court system and lawsuits and counter suits, have zilch. If they, broadly speaking, wanted the idea of a casino to be bottled up and stymied, they’ve done a fine job at it.
There was a glimmer of hope for them, given that one of the entities involved had been given a green light. But now there’s Issue 2, which may be the most confusing ballot item that’s come along. Basically, if it passes, Amendment 100, passed in 2018, would be amended, removing the Pope County casino license from the list of four that was approved. If Issue 2 is defeated, nothing changes.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The fight over Issue 2 boils down to a turf war between the two competing interests that wanted the Pope County license. Oh, and if Issue 2 passes, then Pope County voters would have to vote somewhere down the road to approve of a casino in their county.
Really, explaining the quadratic formula might have been easier.
The point is, the fact that, there are apparently no Gerald Robinsons and Shirley Washingtons in Pope County and, consequently, there’s no casino there, the opportunity presented itself to just kill the casino idea before it was ever brought to life. That is progress gone amok, our thinking.
So congratulations to the Quapaw Nation and to Pine Bluff and Jefferson County. The topping out ceremony on Tuesday was to celebrate the last steel beam being put into place on what will be a fancy 300-plus-room hotel and a total investment of around a half-billion dollars here and the employment of what will be around 1,000 local folks. And in a year, they’ll cut the ribbon on the hotel and, oh, don’t forget the event center.
Who knows, in Pope County a year from now, they may have cut ties with the whole idea of having a casino. That’s fine. Those residents can drive to Pine Bluff to have fun.