Quapaw Nation ready to break ground on commercial casino in Arkansas

Monday, February 25, 2019

An artist's rendering of the Saracen Casino Resort in Arkansas. Image: Quapaw Nation

The Quapaw Nation is prepared to break ground this spring on a commercial gaming facility in Arkansas, The Pine Bluff Commercial reports.

Chairman John Berrey said the tribe is waiting on a license from the state. The goal would then be to open the Saracen Casino Resort in the city of Pine Bluff in less than a year.

“We want to help make Pine Bluff better,” Berrey told a meeting of the Pine Bluff Rotary Club, the paper reported. “We want to create a destination for people to come from outside Jefferson County.”

The facility would be located on ancestral land in the city. Chief Saracen, a leader of the Quapaw people, was laid to rest in Pine Bluff in 1832 at the age of 97.

Voters in Arkansas approved a casino in Jefferson County. The tribe was a primary backer of Issue 4, which appeared on the November 2018 ballot.

The tribe operates two casinos in Oklahoma, with one of those properties extending in the states of Kansas and Missouri.

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Plans for Saracen Casino Resort underway (The Pine Bluff Commercial February 23, 2019)

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