C
entury Casinos, which owns and operates Century Casino Caruthersville in Missouri, said Friday that changes on a law in the state have been approved to remove the requirements for casinos to be “floating facilities.”
The Missouri Gaming Commission will now have the ability to approve a casino facility that is built as a standard building as long as it also includes a container with at least 2,000 gallons of water beneath the facility. This change clears the way for Century Casino Caruthersville, which is the last remaining riverboat casino on open water in Missouri, to move to a non-floating facility.
Century also announced it acquired parcels of land between land already leased by the company and the land-based Pavilion building, which contains a restaurant, multifunctional spaces and an entrance to the walkway to the riverboat casino. The purchases also come with an existing two-story hotel, and they would be the initial step for a future casino and hotel development and better access to parking, for which the operator has already started working with an architecture firm to develop plans. It will refurbish the existing hotel with the goal to reopen it with 36 rooms by early 2022.
However, the number of available casino licenses in Missouri remains capped at 13, and casino facilities are still required to be located within 1,000 feet of the Mississippi or Missouri rivers. The company’s two casinos in Missouri, which include Century Casino Cape Girardeau, operate 1,365 slot machines and 32 table games and generated 43% of the company’s net operating revenue and 104% of the Company’s Adjusted EBITDA1 in Q1 2021.
“We are very thankful to the Missouri legislature, the Caruthersville community and our management in Missouri for having driven and supported our successful efforts in Missouri,” Erwin Haitzmann and Peter Hoetzinger, Co CEOs of Century Casinos commented in a press release. “We look forward to bringing exciting improvements to our property in Caruthersville.”
Original article: https://www.yogonet.com/international//noticias/2021/07/16/58416-missouris-last-remaining-riverboat-casino-can-now-move-inland
