The Quapaw Nation will host a groundbreaking ceremony for its commercial casino in Arkansas on August 5. But gaming is going to debut much sooner than that.
The $350 million Saracen Casino Resort [PDF: Tribal Presentation] will be located on a 345-acre site in Pine Bluff in Jefferson County. The development is named in honor of Chief Saracen, who was laid to rest in the city in 1832 at the age of 97. The chief's name is also going up on the Saracen Annex Q-Store, a 20,000-square-foot convenience store located across the street from the casino site, The Joplin Globe reported. The tribe purchased the existing business and will reopen it with 300 electronic gaming machines on August 5. The casino is expected to open in the spring of 2020. Construction is expected to create about 1,000 jobs. The tribe plans to hire about 1,100 permanent employees. Voters in Arkansas approved gaming at four locations, including one in Jefferson County, through passage of Issue 4 on the November 2018 ballot. The tribe was a primary backer of the initiative. The tribe operates two Indian gaming facilities in Oklahoma -- the Quapaw Casino in Miami, and the Downstream Casino Resort in Quapaw. Downstream also extends into the neighboring states of Kansas and Missouri but gaming does not currently occur on those portions of the property.