The Illinois Gaming Board recently unanimously approved the sale of Jumer’s Casino Hotel in Rock Island to Bally’s Corp. for $120 million. The transaction closed on June 13. Jumer’s parent company, Delaware North Companies Gaming & Entertainment Inc., initiated the sale last October with Twin River Worldwide Holdings Inc., when which changed its name to Bally’s Corp. in November.
Bally’s President and CEO George Papanier said, “As the latest step in our ongoing portfolio diversification strategy, we are excited to complete our acquisition of Jumer’s and enter the rapidly growing Illinois gaming market. The closing provides Bally’s with the potential to capitalize on several lucrative sports betting opportunities, which we expect will drive revenue and cash flow growth. We are pleased to welcome Jumer’s into the Bally’s family, and look forward to leveraging our expertise to enhance the property’s operations.”
The former Jumer’s features a 205-room hotel has with 11 luxury suites, indoor pool, fitness center, events center with meeting rooms for up to 600 people, four restaurants, sports bar, nightclub, driving range and lakeside fire pit. The 40,000-square-foot casino offers more than 870 slot machines and 25 table games, live poker room, high-limit slot area and VIP lounge.
Jumer’s was one of the first riverboat casinos to open in Illinois, in 1992. Jumer’s built the current casino complex in 2008. Delaware North purchased the property from the Jumer family in 2011.
According to IGB data, Jumer’s generated $3.8 million in casino revenue in May; average revenue per admission was $95.02, ranking it ninth out of Illinois’ 10 casinos. More than 95 percent of its $14.7 million in revenue this year has come from electronic gaming devices; however, June 18 was the first day the casino can operate at 100 percent capacity, since Illinois entered Phase 5 of its Covid-19 mitigation stages.
Bally’s currently owns and manages 14 casinos across 10 states plus a horse racetrack in Colorado. The company employs more than 6,000 people and its operations include 15,558 slot machines, 465 table games and 5,355 hotel rooms.
Bally’s now must file a request with the IGB to offer retail sports wagering. Most likely Bally’s will launch its own mobile sports betting app called Bally Bet in Illinois. The app debuted in Colorado last month.
The IGB also unanimously found the proposed $150 million Walker’s Bluff Casino & Resort in Carterville to be “preliminary suitable,” the first step in the process. Iowa-based Elite Casino Resorts said it will build the casino and offer more than 650 slot machines, 20 table games and an ELITE sportsbook, plus a 116-room hotel with a pool, spa, event center and signature restaurants.
In March 2021, Walker’s Bluff announced Elite Casino Resorts now plans to do construction in one phase for the casino and resort.
Elite official Mo Hyder, general manager at Rhythm City Casino in Davenport, Iowa, said, “We are very excited to bring a beautiful resort to Southern Illinois and we’re certainly going to build something that the entire community is going to be very proud of. It’s going to be an economic engine that’s definitely going to create jobs and, of course, an opportunity to engage a lot of businesses in the local area.”
Hyder continued, “Our goal is to start as expeditiously as possible in the interest of all parties involved. So we will follow the gaming board’s guidance on what their specific requirements are in terms of what they need for us to submit to them and when and what approvals are necessary in order to get the process started.”
Walker’s Bluff stakeholders and organized labor have been negotiating for months to reach a project-labor agreement. “It’s one of the things we need to comply with as part of the licensing as well once that becomes a rule. So we will comply with the requirement of ensuring that we have a PLA in place in time to meet all the specific criteria to start construction,” Hyder said.
He noted construction of a temporary casino would begin as soon as the casino license is granted and be completed within nine months. The temporary facility would offer 400 slots and some table games. He said construction would begin on the permanent facility when the temporary one is built, and that would take about 15 months. The temporary casino would then be converted into an events center. The work will require more than 1,000 construction jobs, Hyder said.
