March 11, 2010 (FinancialWire) — Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: PNK) said it has reached a settlement agreement with the Missouri Gaming Commission regarding the license of the company’s subsidiary president Riverboat Casino-Missouri, Inc., which operates The president Casino at Laclede’s Landing in downtown St. Louis, Missouri.

Under the terms of the settlement, the company will voluntarily surrender The president’s class B gaming license and cease operations at that property no later than July 1. The commission, in turn, has agreed to withdraw and dismiss its preliminary order issued January 27.

Missouri gambling regulators had voted to close an aging St. Louis river boat casino, claiming the owners have intentionally slowed gambling and had thus limited state revenue.

In late January, the Missouri Gaming Commission voted to revoke the license of the president Casino, due to what Commission chairman James Mathewson at the time called a, “pattern of deliberately putting the president Casino in decline,” which it said led to reduced state revenues from the operation.

Missouri officials claimed that the company had removed slot machines and game tables and reduced food options and staff, resulting in a revenue decline of 48 percent since 2006, when Pinnacle had bought the casino.

The commission ordered that the casino would close by July 1, but that Pinnacle could request a hearing challenging the decision.

In the end, Pinnacle has abandoned this channel, and now said it plans to focus on “maximizing shareholder value” at its Lumiere Place facility, as well as its new River City Casino, which opened on March 4.

Nevada-based Pinnacle Entertainment owns and operates casinos in Nevada, Louisiana, Indiana, Missouri and Argentina. In March 2010, Pinnacle opened its newest casino, River City, in south St. Louis County, Missouri.

Pinnacle is also developing a second casino in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to be called Sugarcane Bay at L’Auberge du Lac, and a casino in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

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