Missouri blocked an Ozarks casino proposal, but investors are regrouping with a new plan and a larger bankroll

The investment group with its sights set on building a state-regulated casino at Lake of the Ozarks says that despite their failure to get the necessary constitutional amendment passed in 2024, they think voters will approve such a measure in 2026.

And they say it all comes down to advertising.

In 2024, the group’s proposed constitutional amendment that would allow a casino to be built on (or near) the Osage River failed by a vote of 52.5% NO to 47.5% YES. In a presentation to the Lake Ozark Board of Aldermen last month, Andy Prewitt, one of the investors in Lake of the Ozarks Community Gaming (and nephew of investor and local developer Gary Prewitt), explained to the board why his group thinks they can have success in changing the constitution next year. For Prewitt, it comes down to four things, each of them related to advertising:

1. “As high as 20% of Missouri voters associated ‘Osage River Gaming’ with the ‘Osage Nation Gaming Efforts’ and voted against our resolution because of that.”

Prewitt says the investor group — which has been re-formed with additional investors and named Lake of the Ozarks Community Gaming — will be spending $20 million on a statewide campaign to convince Missouri voters that “this casino is a net positive for our area and the state.”

2. In 2024, the group’s $5.2 million budget “limited our campaign to annoying mailers that nobody reads and limited broadcast TV coverage that only reached a small portion of the state.”

Prewitt says his group believes most people never saw a “Vote Yes on Amendment 5” commercial, and the nearly 4x spend on advertising will change that.

3. Due to a signature miscount and related court case, the 2024 ad campaign didn’t start until Sept. 1, and ended on Nov. 4 (election day). “Two months is not enough time to run a successful statewide campaign.”

Prewitt says the resolutions of support from Miller County and Lake Ozark will allow them to start the signature gathering process a month earlier. He also pointed out they would not be competing with signature gathering initiatives like they were in 2024: sports betting, abortion legalization, and minimum wage increases. “The sports betting campaign was head hunting our best signature collectors and offering them $40 per hour, plus a bonus per valid signature,” he pointed out. He said there is very little doubt that they will gather the 200,247+ signatures needed in order to get on the ballot, by May 15, 2026. And he says that will help them avoid the Secretary of State lawsuit that cost them four months of campaign time in 2024. 

4. They don’t expect other casino groups to advertise against them.

In 2024, Bally’s was a 50% partner in the investment group, Prewitt revealed. That alienated other Missouri gaming companies (Caesars and Penn National, among others) and — Prewitt believes — actually incentivized them to fund a Vote No campaign. He told the board that MEC reporting shows Caesar’s spent approximately $10 million campaigning against the casino amendment (Amendment 5) and the sports betting amendment (Amendment 2). Amendment 2 passed by a razor-thin margin in 2024: 50.05% Yes to 49.95% No — a difference of fewer than 3,000 votes. Amendment 5’s gap was larger: 142,940 votes.

“It worked,” Prewitt said of the campaign against them. “Our initial polling showed Missourians in favor of Osage River Gaming and Convention's (ORGC) Amendment 5 (78% Yes - 22% No). By the time Caesars campaign was over our polls showed us in a dead heat (49% Yes – 51% No). We ended up losing the campaign by 5%.”

As a result, this time around, the investor group has not chosen a gaming company to partner with. “We want all of the gaming companies in the state to be in favor of our ballot measure and more importantly not spend money against our campaign. We have had initial conversations with Bally’s and Caesars and both are interested in partnering with us and both have committed not to spend money against our campaign,” he ended.

Lake of the Ozarks Community Gaming believes its casino will see revenues of at least $100 million a year. If those projections materialize, that would result in approximately $4 million in tax revenue for Lake Ozark and $1 million for Miller County.