Ground recently was broken for the Queen of Terre Haute Casino Resort in Indiana. The $260 million venue, developed by Churchill Downs Inc., will feature a casino with 1,000 slot machines, 50 table games and a sportsbook, plus a 125-room,10-story hotel with a rooftop pool and lounge, as well as restaurants and bars. Officials said it will create 1,000 construction jobs, 500 permanent jobs and be completed in 18 months.
Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett said the casino will have an annual economic impact of $190 million for the city and county. The city, county, school district and a nonprofit foundation will share about $10 million a year, he said.
Bennett added that besides casino revenue, local governments will benefit from property taxes, local income taxes from employees and food-and-beverage tax, “all of which goes to furthering investment in the community. Looking back, in some ways it is a miracle. The community support is what sold it. It was a major legislative accomplishment,” he said.
Churchill Downs Chief Executive Officer William C. Carstanjen said,
“The Queen of Terre Haute is intended to reflect this community, the values, the enthusiasm and the people that live here. We are very focused as a company on economic development, health and wellness, tourism, infrastructure and quality of life, as well as talent, attracting the best people that we can. We realize that you have entrusted us with being a member of your community and with this project.”
Carstanjen stated the company will “prioritize the residents, the vendors, the suppliers of the west central region. We will be looking for employees, team members as we call them, contractors and we will be focused on finding the people to do as much of the work as we possibly can from this area and this community.”
General Manager Mike Rich said the casino will easily compete with other venues, including the new Golden Nugget under construction in Danville, Illinois. Rich said, “We feel that our offering will be more significant than in Danville, and I think this will be a regional draw. We think we will have something very unique to offer in terms of being a real regional resort. We think we will be able to also pull from Indianapolis venues which don’t have the resort amenities that we have as it relates to the niceness of the hotel, the pool concept, the number of restaurants on property that will be open at any given time. We really feel this is a real resort property.”
In 2019 the Indiana General Assembly approved a sweeping casino and sports betting bill that allowed the possibility of a Terre Haute casino. Vigo County voters in November 2019 approved a casino in the county with 63 percent in favor.
An early mover behind the casino has been Terre Haute businessman Greg Gibson, whose company, Lucy Luck Gaming, won the license for a Terre Haute casino. But in June 2021, the Indiana Gaming Commission did not renew the license, declaring Lucy Luck did not have an established executive team and financing was incomplete. Churchill Downs then was awarded the license in November 2021.
