{"id":16585,"date":"2017-03-10T07:44:55","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T14:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=16585"},"modified":"2017-03-10T07:44:55","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T14:44:55","slug":"some-in-missoula-wonder-how-many-casinos-are-too-many","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/03\/some-in-missoula-wonder-how-many-casinos-are-too-many\/","title":{"rendered":"Some in Missoula wonder how many casinos are too many"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Casinos\"<\/a>

Some members of the Missoula City Council are wondering if the number of casinos in the the city has reached the saturation point.<\/p><\/div>\n

Several members of the Missoula City Council have suggested that the number of local casinos has reached a saturation point, leaving in question the future of another casino proposed for North Reserve Street.<\/p>\n

Concerns that local casinos were snatching up coveted all-beverage licenses also came up.<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Jones, represented by Michael Cabe of Merrick Lentz Architect, submitted an application for a conditional use to open a tavern and casino at 2413 N. Reserve St. The existing 3,303-square-foot building used to house the Radio Shack and is attached to Outback Steakhouse.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s Development Services has recommended the project\u2019s approval, saying it meets the district\u2019s zoning standards, along with recommendations set forth in the city\u2019s growth policy.<\/p>\n

While the project didn\u2019t receive a vote\u00a0Wednesday, members of the City Council\u2019s Land Use and Planning Committee were underwhelmed by the proposal for another casino.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can see no reason to object to this, but I just kind of want to,\u201d said Ward 6 council member Michelle Cares. \u201cIs there a saturation clause in any of our laws saying we have too many casinos?\u201d<\/p>\n

While there isn\u2019t such a city law, City Attorney Jim Nugent said state law regulates the number of liquor licenses, as well as beer and wine licenses. The proposed casino would include a small tavern and the owner currently possesses an all-beverage license.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>\u201cState law regulates the number or casinos, or all-beverage licenses, as well as beer and wine licenses,\u201d Nugent said. \u201cWe still have restaurants that don\u2019t have alcohol and they want it. It\u2019s all regulated by state law and you\u2019re not allowed to set caps based on how many licenses may exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of 2015, Missoula had roughly 78 all-beverage licenses<\/a> and 39 beer and wine licenses. The allotment is based upon the city\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

Montana is one of only 17 states in the U.S. that has a liquor control or quota system, according to the Montana Tavern Association.<\/p>\n

Ward 4 council member Jon Wilkins suggested the city should take note of state law when considering casinos as a conditional use.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at Reserve Street, there\u2019s two or three casinos every block all the way down to Broadway,\u201d Wilkins said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how they stay in business with so many of them. If there\u2019s a state law, we need to start looking at that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Missoula Current<\/a>, an independent online newspaper, of which\u00a0Martin Kidston is the founding editor.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several members of the Missoula City Council have suggested that the number of local casinos has reached a saturation point, leaving in question the future of another casino proposed for North Reserve Street. Concerns that local casinos were snatching up coveted all-beverage licenses also came up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":16586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[5485,5013],"class_list":["post-16585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","category-news","tag-casinos","tag-missoula-city-council","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16585"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16587,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16585\/revisions\/16587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}