The partnership that earlier this year had received a state license to build a $560 million resort-casino in Sumner County, located in south-central Kansas, said it was canceling the project due to poor economic conditions.
The casino license was one of four in the state allowed under an expanded gambling program approved by the Legislature in 2007.
“We truly regret that we must withdraw our gaming application as a result of circumstances beyond our control, that do not permit us to meet the proposed schedule for the project,” said Jeffrey Ungerer, manager of Sumner Gaming Joint Venture, a partnership of Harrah’s Entertainment and Sumner Gaming and Resorts.
The Kansas Lottery, which oversaw the casino licensing program, will return the $25 million fee the project’s backers paid in June.
Penn National Gaming, the successful applicant for the casino license in Cherokee County in southeast Kansas, said in October it would not build its proposed facility after it did not also win the casino license for Sumner County.
Officials had expected about $80.5 million in fees from the four casinos approved, but Secretary of Administration Duane Goossen said the state’s take would drop to $30.5 million with the two cancellations.
