COVINGTON — Developer Bill Butler's vision for a 15-acre stretch along this city's Ohio River shoreline has a definite Las Vegas flair: a casino complemented by live entertainment, restaurants, shops and even housing.

        Undeterred by the fact gambling is illegal in Kentucky, Mr. Butler, Northern Kentucky's dominant commercial builder, said Thursday he is determined to bring casino gambling to Northern Kentucky.

Butler

        In a three-paragraph statement given to the Enquirer, the chairman and president of the Corporex Cos. made his first public comments on a long-term plan he and Kentucky Speedway owner Jerry Carroll have devised.

        “A land-based casino could be located near the (Clay Wade Bailey) bridge together with additional restaurants, a showroom and further hotel accommodations,” Mr. Butler said. “The development would be a logical extension of the current RiverCenter character.

        “The area is large enough to accommodate a 5,000-car, horizontally designed parking lot,” he said. “Over that structure would be a "village' design to include shops at the plaza mall level with mid-rise residential living above.”

        A bill that would allow Kentucky's race tracks to offer video gambling appears as if it will die in Kentucky's General Assembly without a vote.

        But Mr. Butler and Mr. Carroll insist that gambling legislation will resurface. They hope to convince lawmakers that a plan that also includes casinos is best for Kentucky.

        Riverboat gambling just across the Ohio River in Indiana fills coffers in Rising Sun, Lawrenceburg and Vevay. Statewide polls have shown that more than 72 percent of those polled in Northern Kentucky support the expansion of legalized gambling in the state.

        The development duo is pondering a casino on a largely vacant parcel of riverfront property in Covington known as River West. It is between the Roebling Suspension and Clay Wade Bailey bridges just west of RiverCenter, a group of two office towers, two hotels, a luxury condominium building and several restaurants developed by Mr. Butler's Corporex Cos.

        The Northern Kentucky Convention Center, which city leaders have said would benefit from a riverfront casino, is directly across RiverCenter Boulevard — previously Second Street — from the Marriott Hotel, one of the hotels in the RiverCenter development.

        Earlier this month, Covington City Commission granted Mr. Carroll and Mr. Butler the rights to study the feasibility of developing the Riverfront West site.

        Mr. Butler would not comment further. He did not offer a financial estimate on the project and had no renderings or drawings of the plan. The city has said it wants a formal plan in about six months.

        Covington Mayor Butch Callery said the city would like to see residential as part of any development on Riverfront West.

        “We think housing is a real nice fit down there,” Mr. Callery said Thursday.

        He also said he is not opposed to a casino on Covington's riverfront.

        “If gambling ever does come to Kentucky, that's probably the prime location in Northern Kentucky, if not the whole state, for it,” Mr. Callery said. “It's something we'll just have to wait and see on, though. We've allowed them to do their plan and a marketing study to see what will work down there.”

        Mr. Carroll could not be reached for comment, but in previous interviews he described a development that closely matches Mr. Butler's plans.

        He also said a land-based high-rise casino with entertainment, restaurants, a hotel, retail and more would do more business than the Argosy Casino in Lawrenceburg. Just 20 minutes from Covington, the Argosy is one of the most popular riverboat casinos in the nation.

        “I'm talking bigger and better than Argosy,” he said recently. “If you're going to do gaming, you have to do it right, you have to do it big,” Mr. Carroll said.

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