Osage River Gaming and Bally’s Address Lake Ozark Officials About Possibility of Voter-Approved Casino

A smaller crowd than what was expected turned out at city hall Tuesday night to hear public comments and discussion from representatives of the Osage Gaming Group and Bally’s about a possible future casino landing in Lake Ozark.

According to Bally’s Senior Vice-President of Corporate Development Christopher Jewett, a casino would bring many benefits to the city and the lake area overall.

“We’ll drive more traffic than just that 5 million today you’ll add another hotel product, which quite frankly, every time I’ve been here, I’ve always heard that there’s not enough at peak season. We actually heard that today. With that being said, this will also create hundreds of living wage permanent jobs and hundreds of construction jobs over a few year. As the product is phased out.”

If given the go-ahead to proceed, Bally’s expects about an 18-month timetable to opening the casino and hotel doors for businesses.

The possibility of the casino still rests on the shoulders of statewide voters who will decide in November about a 14^th state license to be created for a casino to operate in the lake area.