There are currently two cases left related to the Pope County casino.
I know the status can be confusing so I created this graphic to show the current status.
The plaintiffs (and their intervener) in the Gulfside case:
- GULFSIDE still wants the casino license that it was awarded and then lost when the Arkansas Supreme Court overturned Judge Fox’s ruling that Jim Ed Gibson’s letter of support was valid.
- CHOCTAW is still fuming that it never got picked for the casino license. It claims that the Legends casino would be financially detrimental to its Oklahoma casino at Pacola, but that’s flimsy and any impact of a Pope County casino on Pacola would be the same no matter who operates it… unless it’s a Choctaw casino. Choctaw is simply a “rejected suitor” trying to spoil things.
The plaintiffs in the CFABPC /Knight case
- CITIZENS FOR A BETTER POPE COUNTY and JAMES KNIGHT are simply against any casino in Pope County.
They started out with a local initiative that passed and became Ordinance 2018-O-42, requiring that the judge and/or quorum court get permission from the voters before providing support documents for any casino applicants. That ordinance was found to be unconstitutional.
They have filed several lawsuits related to the casino and never won.
They are also the folks behind FAIRPLAY FOR ARKANSAS 2022, a failed attempt to get their initiative to remove Pope County from Amendment 100 on the 2022 general election ballot. That attempt was mostly funded by CHOCTAW.
It is thought that they were also behind the dark money political campaigns in 2000 & 2022 against several local county officials, funded, of course, it is believed, by CHOCTAW.