While Pope County languishes waiting for litigation to play out without any visible signs of a new resort and casino other than the local Legends office on Commerce Street, it’s been full steam ahead in Jefferson County since well before the Racing Commission open the May 2019 application period. Geotechnical drilling was already underway in January at the planned site at the south-east corner of the Martha Mitchell Expressway and U.S. 63-79 — east of The Pines Mall .
In January, local boosters were already cheering the jobs that the Quapaw tribe’s $350 million Saracen Casino Resort would bring, seeing it as a chance to “reset the county’s ailing economy.”
Quoted in a THV11, January 28, 2019, article, the Jefferson County director of economic development said he couldn’t be happier.
He said the new casino is the equivalent of 1,000 new jobs falling from the sky. That’ll be enough to put the casino among the county’s top five employers — a list the includes Jefferson Regional Medical Center, Tyson Foods and the state Department of Correction.
The casino would be a shot in the arm to a county that’s seen population declines and economic stagnation.
The THV11 article also had another interesting tidbit. While part of Gulfside’s case is that the outgoing Jefferson County and Pine Bluff officials had signed letters of support, they also had letters of support from the new officials, the January 2019 article says, “…Pine Bluff Mayor Shirley Washington and Jefferson County Judge Gerald Robinson signed letters of support for the casino in Pine Bluff.”
Funny thing, Gulfside doesn’t mention that in any of their filings.