The next meeting of the Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board on Wednesday will include two items regarding the South Central Gaming Zone — the selection of review board consultants and the arrangement for payment of the selection process.
The Expanded Lottery Act allows the Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board to “employ any experts, consultants or other professionals at the expense of a prospective lottery gaming facility manager to provide assistance in evaluating a lottery gaming facility.”
Over the past two selection rounds, the Review Board has developed specific topics for evaluation and has hired consultants to provide advice on those topics.
Consultants for advice on these topics have included:
- Gaming economics and gaming affairs consultant: Dr. William Eadington
- Gaming revenue projections and market studies: Will Cummings
- Gaming revenue projections and market studies: Wells Gaming Research
- Casino fiscal impact on existing businesses: Civic Economics
- Applicant financial viability: Union Gaming Analytics
- Construction costs: Construction Cost Systems
Casino fiscal impact on local governments: Meridian Business Advisors (through Eugenia Larmore and Candace Evart, who are now “Ekay Economic Consultants”.), and Ancillary Development - Raving Consulting.
With the exception of Raving Consulting, all of the consultants are available for this selection round. With the Board’s approval, staff will negotiate contracts with those consultants and will find a replacement to analyze the applicants’ proposed ancillary developments.
The board will also review and discuss the funding of the board’s selection process.
Pursuant to the Expanded Lottery Act, the Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board is completely funded by the prospective lottery gaming facility managers that are seeking the Board’s approval.
Currently, there are three applicant managers in the South Central gaming zone — Kansas Star, Global Gaming and Harrah’s — which must fund the Board process.
Based on projections for expenses – including consulting expenses, salaries, travel, etc. – the Board’s costs are estimated to be below $755,000. The board is recommending charging each applicant a deposit of $250,000, plus $5,000 for revenue analyses if multiple facility sites are involved in an applicant’s proposal.
During the second round of the casino picks for the Northeast and South Central zones, the cost was $1 million. The Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board refunded about $115,000 to applicants at the end of the selection process.
The lottery could ask for additional assessments if the process exceeds the budgeted amount. Likewise, any unspent deposits will be refunded to the applicants.
The next meeting will be held at 8:30 a.m., Wednesday, Aug. 25th via telephone conference. Those interested in the meeting can call in at 1-866-337-0425 and enter the conference ID No. which is 95938856.
