The rolled dice settle

Ruling delivers likely win for Cherokee Nation

Arkansas Supreme Court members broke out their dictionaries to resolve long-running, controversial litigation for the sole casino license for Pope County.

The court, or rather a four-member majority of justices, relied on a couple of definitions to reverse a lower court’s ruling last week.

One definition was for the article “the,” and the other for the word “applicant,” as referenced in the constitutional amendment that set this whole controversy in motion.

Arkansas voters approved Amendment 100 in November 2018, allowing the Arkansas Racing Commission to award a casino license for Pope County, one of only four allowed within the state.

While existing casinos in Hot Springs and West Memphis have been expanded and a new casino built in Jefferson County, Pope County proposals have long been hung up in litigation.

There were other applicants but the two that were still in the mix last week are Gulfside Casino Partnership, a company out of Mississippi, and Oklahoma-based Cherokee Nation Businesses.

Gulfside had prevailed before Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Tim Fox, but Cherokee Nation Businesses won on appeal to the Arkansas Supreme Court.

There is room yet for more legal wrangling in the case. There’s even a petition drive to remove Pope County altogether from Amendment 100. That would require another statewide vote for constitutional change and serves mostly to illustrate the strong division of thought between anti-casino and pro-casino factions in Pope County.

Nevertheless, it appears at least one key issue has been resolved through the litigation.

Judge Fox had declared unconstitutional an Arkansas Racing Commission rule and state legislation requiring that endorsement letters for casino licenses come from local officials in office at the time the license application is submitted. Both the rule and the law mirroring it were passed after Amendment 100 was adopted.

Supreme Court Justice Karen Baker, writing for the majority, said that in the plain language of Amendment 100, stating “the” county judge means the county judge in office at the time the “casino applicant” submitted its application to the commission.

Baker was joined in the majority by Justices Shawn Womack, Rhonda Wood and Special Justice Jim Spears. Justices Courtney Hudson and Barbara Webb dissented while Chief Justice Dan Kemp did not participate.

This matter became an issue, of course, because Gulfside secured endorsements in December 2018 from the outgoing county judge and mayor, both of whom were not in office the following May when the Racing Commission formally opened the window for casino license applications.

Gulfside maintained throughout the litigation that the former county judge’s and mayor’s endorsements were sufficient and that Gulfside should be granted the license.

In the opinion, Justice Baker explained that Gulfside could not have become a casino applicant until May 2018, when “the” county judge, as far as the amendment was concerned, was the current judge, not a former or retired county judge.

The Arkansas Racing Commission has so far not licensed any casino in Pope County and just when it might do so is unclear.

Last week, officials were waiting for the formal mandate from the Supreme Court and talking with the state’s attorney general, who represents the commission, about how and when to proceed.

For its part, Cherokee Nation Businesses is apparently ready to move on with construction, although it will first deliver a $38.8 million check to the current Pope County judge for economic development in the county.

The negotiated payment is a sweetener Cherokee Nation Businesses will pay for the endorsement the company secured for its proposed casino resort development there from “the” county judge of Pope County.