Lawmakers Advance Proposal For Casinos at Lake of the Ozarks

A Missouri House panel has endorsed a plan that could allow casinos to be built near the Lake of the Ozarks.

The proposal endorsed Thursday would ask voters whether to amend the state constitution to allow casinos on the Osage River between the Bagnell Dam and the point where the Osage River meets the Missouri River.

House member Rocky Miller, who represents the lake area, said he filed the proposal to try to preempt a potential initiative petition drive to allow casinos on the popular tourist lake in central Missouri.

The Missouri Constitution currently allows casinos only along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.