Nitro City Council Supports Table Gaming

• {Nitro, West Virginia}...Nitro City Council has approved a resolution to support table gaming at Mardi Gras Casino and Resort. The resolution is in response to a West Virginia Republican Party push to put on the ballot a measure to reconsider allowing table games at the resort. Republican Party Chairman Mike Stuart says, in the five years since voters narrowly approved the games there, Mardi Gras officials have only invested a small portion of the promised $250 million in the site. Jackson County Delegate Republican Mitch Carmichael says he does not think it's the job of Stuart to hold officials at Mardi Gras Casino accountable for investment promises made before voters approved table game additions.  City Council members say the casino employs more than 850, pays good wages and benefits, pays millions in taxes to the county and local governments, donates thousands each year to local charities, spends thousands to promote tourism in the Kanawha Valley, and the movement to get rid of table gaming would result in the loss of tax dollars and jobs. Mardi Gras has had table games for the past five years after voters in the state approved a measure allowing it.