By Bill Raack, St. Louis Public Radio
Clayton, MO – The St. Louis area officially has its seventh casino. State regulators approved a gaming license for Pinnacle Entertainment's River City Casino Wednesday.
The company plans to open the 90,000 square-foot River City Casino in Lemay in south St. Louis County next week.
Pinnacle regional vice-president Todd George told the state gaming commission that they are hoping to generate about as much money as the company's Lumiere Place casino in downtown St. Louis.
"In light of this current economy, opening in March, we hope to average approximately $17 million a month in gaming revenue, coming out to $172 million for this current year. The admissions for the period are projected to be approximately $5.4 million," George said.
The casino will pay St. Louis County $4 million a year in rent, with three-quarters of that earmarked to be spent in Lemay during the first five years that River City Casino is open.
The casino will employ about 12-hundred workers once it's open. Head of the county's Economic Development Council, Denny Coleman, says the county is thrilled to have the former National Lead site in Lemay redeveloped.
"As Pinnacle Entertainment's representative said when we gave them our community partnership award a little over a year ago, said this was such a great opportunity, it was contaminated, it was in the flood plain and there was no way to get there. But Pinnacle made this a great site," Coleman said.
Coleman says Lemay residents said they wanted this casino there, although a few spoke out against the license at Wednesday's meeting.