Las Vegas-based casino operator Full House Resorts wants to build a 0 million casino resort, American Place, near the Indianapolis International Airport. Full House would transfer half of its 1,400 slot machines and table games, licensed for its Rising Sun Casino in southeastern Indiana, to the new development. The gaming transfer would require state approval.
Full House submitted the proposal in response to the Indianapolis International Airport’s “Land Use Initiative,” under which the Airport Authority will put several hundred acres on the market for sale or lease for non-aviation purposes. The casino would be developed at the site of a razed airport terminal and nearby parking lots no longer used by the Indianapolis Airport Authority.
In a statement, Full House said its development would be one of the largest privately funded construction projects in Indiana history. The plan includes an upscale 700,000 square foot retail center anchored by a casino with 700 slot machines and table games. The complex also would offer a 25-unit villa-style hotel, residential condominiums, offices, conference and performing arts center, restaurant court, health club and multiplex movie theater. Also, it would feature a seasonal plaza for summer and winter events and a central square surrounded by a unique fountain and 3-D imaging experience.
Full House Chief Executive Officer Dan Lee said, “We can build something here that doesn’t exist anywhere else. Given the adjacency of the airport, we expect the center to attract people from throughout the country to an experience that is part Indianapolis, part Las Vegas and 100 percent unique.”
Lee said a small hotel at American Place would cater to casino high rollers. With several hotels already existing near the site, “We then plan to operate a shuttle service connecting American Place with all neighboring hotels,” he said.
Full House said an independent third-party study estimated American Place would generate $85 million per year in state and local taxes, create 4,000 permanent jobs and attract 10-15 million visitors annually.
Lee said Rising Star revenue has dropped by 75 percent, to $40 million a year, due to competing casinos in neighboring Cincinnati. “It’s barely profitable now,” he said. Regarding moving half of Rising Star’s slots and table games to an Indianapolis casino, Lee said, “So it’s not an expansion of gaming. The slot machines are already in the state so why not put them at a place where they generate jobs, where they generate private non-gaming investment?”
The last time legislators considered a gambling bill, one that would put a casino and horse racetrack at the state fairgrounds in Indianapolis, was two decades ago, when it was soundly defeated.
Two racinos already exist near Indianapolis, in Anderson and Shelbyville, owned by Centaur Gaming. In a statement, Centaur officials said, “Just last summer, the Indiana General Assembly formed a committee that completed a thorough and comprehensive study of Indiana’s gaming industry, and the topic of a casino in Indianapolis was never discussed. It is ludicrous to believe the legislature would permit the holder of a gaming license to ‘divide up’ its license and operate from different locations, when a proposal to move one of the Gary riverboats was specifically rejected by the legislative study committee just last summer. The idea of building an Indianapolis casino, be it downtown or at the airport, has existed for years and each time fails to pass the test of further serious examination.” This year the two racinos lobbied to add live dealers and lawmakers would not even allow that to occur until 2021.
State Rep. Bob Behning, whose district includes the airport, said he it’s unlikely legislators would accept Full House’s proposition. “I think they have problems before it even gets started. It is a bit problematic when the legislature has decided that basically we weren’t willing to expand gaming and so they’re obviously advocating for that without actually getting another license,” Behning said.
State Rep. Todd Huston, who supports casino deregulation, also said he doubts the Full House deal could get done. He said legislators would not be willing to make an exception to the state’s gaming laws to let an operator move part of their gaming tables to another county. “It wouldn’t just be the guys in Rising Sun that would like to cut that deal. It would be a race for all the other licensees to do that, too. I think there would be a concern: Why Rising Sun?” Huston said. Earlier this year he sponsored legislation to remove restrictions on where casinos can be built and how many may be licensed. The measure did not get a hearing.
Still, Lee said Full House hopes to get approval for the proposal in the 2016 or 2017 legislative sessions, break ground in two years and open the complex in four years.
Ed Feigenbaum, editor of Indiana Gaming Insight newsletter, said, “It’s very difficult to get any type of consensus to bring about any kind of change” in Indiana’s gambling laws. “Change is incremental in Indiana’s gaming industry. It’s a very delicate balance, and anytime you make any kind of change, you necessarily affect other elements of the industry,” he said.
Feigenbaum added Full House needs to find new revenue but moving half of Rising Star’s slots and gaming tables to Indianapolis won’t be welcomed by operators of other Indiana casinos, who are likely to want to bid on an Indianapolis casino location if that market ever opens up. He said Full House should expect a long struggle to get its Indianapolis casino plan approved, considering that it took casino operators nine years to get the state to let them drop the “must-cruise” requirement for riverboats.
An Airport Authority spokesman said the review process could take several weeks.
