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Texas Casino's Fate Depends on Vote

"`The window of opportunity will have shut forever in Texas, certainly in our lifetimes,' says Barry Keenan, a consultant heading the effort to win first state and then local approvals for as many as 24 casinos throughout the state, including the one proposed for Austin.

"Keenan is a real estate developer and president of Austin-based Community Planning Associates, and is acting as a consultant to Downtown Austin Enhancement Group LP. The latter is a collection of investors, including local unnamed players, hoping to develop and own a 100,000-square-foot casino that would be the jewel of a larger mixed use development stretching from Lake Austin to about Fourth Street, one block west of I-35.

"The first step toward that goal would require a statewide vote. Keenan says legislatures in 26 states are considering whether to call for such a vote this year.

"Even if only a few do so, and if voters in those states allow casino-style gambling, Keenan says the gambling industry will have its hands full developing those markets in the coming years and won't be interested in developing Texas projects.

"…Keenan says he is prohibited from ownership in a casino due to his conviction in the 1963 kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr., when he was sentenced to life in prison plus 75 years. The courts later changed his sentence to 12 years and he was released on parole after four and a half years.

"…Keenan declines to name local investors in DAEG, but says their identities surface as they appear to testify before legislative committees on the project's behalf…"

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