An Oklahoma-based group has submitted its proposal to obtain a casino license for Jefferson County in hopes to undergo a $300-million dollar project.
The first applicant is Downstream Development Authority of the Oklahoma Quapaw Tribe.
“This is beyond just dollars and cents for the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma. This is the original homeland,” said Nate Steel, who serves as legal counsel for the applicant.
Steel along with colleague Alex Gray dropped off a box of documents at the Arkansas Racing Commission on Wednesday.
The documents detail plans for the construction and operation of a state-of-the-art casino resort.
Due to the competitive nature of the application process, Steel isn’t at liberty to reveal too much about the Saracen Casino Resort.
“This is a full scale first class commercial casino resort so I think that the people of Jefferson County, central Arkansas and really this part of the country are going to be excited about having this built in Jefferson County, Arkansas,” Steel said.
Downstream Development Authority currently operates two casinos in Oklahoma.
Steel noted the addition of a third casino could lead to enhancing the Pine Bluff area overall.
“Within the next few years of operation, close to $10 million annually — that’s just the direct tax revenue. We’ll be looking at about 2,000 jobs during construction and 1,000 permanent jobs after that,” Steel said.
Jefferson County officials are on board with taking a gamble with prospective success of casinos.
“We’re not getting ahead of ourselves here. This is an important part of the process. We want to show the racing commission what we proposed and make sure they get a good look at our application. It’s an exciting time but we’re not quite at the finish line yet,” Steel said.
The deadline to submit applications for Jefferson and Pope counties is May 30.
