Senator Earline Rogers, a Democrat from Gary, recently said despite the opposition of Governor Mike Pence, she intends to re-introduce a bill allowing land-based casinos in the 2015 legislative session
Riverboat casinos are on their way to moving off water and onto land in Mississippi, Iowa and possibly Indiana.
The Mississippi Gaming Commission recently voted to approve a land-based site for the coastal Diamondhead Casino, which was cleared for a water site in the 1990s. However, after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, the state allowed land-based casinos. The new site approval allows a casino within 800 feet of the water. No area residents attended the commission meeting to oppose the casino.
Diamondhead developers own 400 acres south of Interstate 10 along the Bay of St. Louis. Former MTR Gaming Chair Deborah Vitale said the location will attract people driving by to gamble and to spend the night. “We’ve insulated the site from the residents. That’s the key,” she said. She added even before the commission’s new guidelines required a 3000-room hotel, that was the Diamondhead Casino developers’ plan. “All of my analysis supported the 300 rooms,” she said.
Earlier this year the commission rejected a casino proposed by Jacob’s Entertainment, partly because the property is on a man-made canal, not the Bay of St. Louis. Allen Godfrey, executive director of the gaming commission, said the Diamondhead Casino site “touches the waters of the Bay of St. Louis” as required. “Now the ball’s in their court,” Godfrey said. The developers will go before the commission again when they have arranged financing to proceed with construction.
Another casino that will be moving to land will be Rhythm City in Davenport, Iowa. Kehl Management, owned by Chief Executive Officer Dan Kehl, purchased the riverboat casino for $51 million from Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. Recently the company, which operates casinos in Riverside and Larchwood, received approval from the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission to buy a tract at I-80 and I-74 in Davenport where it intends to build a new land-based, $110 million Rhythm City destination that could be completed in 2016.
Positioned to better compete with casinos in nearby Rock Island, Illinois and Bettendorf, Iowa, the new seven-story property will feature a 50,000 square foot gaming floor with 900 slots, three craps tables and 25 blackjack tables, roulette and a poker room, Kehl said. The 300,000 square foot facility also will offer more than 100 hotel rooms, a 1,500-seat convention center and restaurant options including a buffet, rooftop steakhouse, deli and sports lounge.
And in Indiana, state Senator Earline Rogers, a Democrat from Gary, recently said despite the opposition of Governor Mike Pence, she intends to re-introduce a bill allowing land-based casinos in the 2015 legislative session. Rogers wants to move Gary’s Majestic Star Casino off Lake Michigan in order to compete with land-based casinos in neighboring states that have led to a decrease of $99 million, or 13 percent, in state casino tax revenue in the fiscal year ending June 30, according to the Indiana Gaming Commission. In 2013, the state Senate passed a land-based casino bill Rogers sponsored.
Recently, when Evansville City Council President John Friend told Pence that Tropicana Evansville could potentially spend $100 million on a new facility if it could move off the Ohio River, Pence said he’d rather pursue “prudent and responsible ways that we could maintain the status quo” regarding Indiana casinos. In response, Rogers said, “I wasn’t really surprised by what he said since he’s had that posture all along. I’m much more hopeful that he’ll see the data on the negative impacts existing policies are having on local communities” as indicated by a study committee. She added, “Now that the honeymoon is over, I think the legislature has the most experience in this area and won’t be afraid to take a stance counter to the governor. You never know, after an election, what position someone is going to take.”
Although Pence said he considers moving casinos inland as “expanding gaming,” he said “it’s not my aim to reduce the role of gaming in our state budget or in our state’s overall economy.” Rogers said that could open a dialog about what expanded gaming really means. “There have been no incidents to cause us to regret being involved in the casino business. I just want us to treat casinos like any other business,” she said.
