The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission recently voted 3-2 to grant a gaming license to Wild Rose Entertainment for a new million casino complex in Jefferson, population 4,500, located 60 miles northwest of Des Moines. The Jefferson casino will be the first approved by the commission since 2010 and the 19th licensed by the state, which also has three tribal casinos.
Officials at Wild Rose Entertainment, which operates casinos in Emmetsburg and Clinton, said the new casino will feature slots, table games, an events center and a 71-room hotel, and employ 275 people. Last August, in a referendum vote, Greene County residents voted 75 percent in favor of the casino. The company will share 5 percent of the casino’s revenue, about $1.5 million a year, with charitable groups in Greene County and surrounding communities.
Wild Rose Entertainment President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Timmons said, “We are very appreciative of the vote today. We know that the commissioners take great care and effort in making these decisions, and we thank each of them for their commitment to the process. Our application was as compelling as any I have ever seen in my 25-plus years in the Iowa gaming industry. We offered the commission all of the things they look for in a license applicant: the integrity of our existing operations, overwhelming local support, regional support from contiguous counties and the preservation of stability in the industry.”
Timmons said Wild Rose Entertainment will break ground within 30 days and expect to open the new property in late summer 2015.
Leading up to the vote, the commission hired two analysts to research the proposed casino. They concluded the casino would generate around $30 million annually but most of that money would come from other casinos, particularly Prairie Meadows in Altoona, 70 miles southeast of Jefferson. Officials at the casino, which generated $187 million in gross revenue last year, said it would lose an estimated $13 million, or 7 percent of its annual yearly gross revenue, to the Jefferson casino.
However, Lamberti said Prairie Meadows “will be just fine.” He and two other commissioners said they approved the Greene County license because rural areas ought to benefit from gambling as much as larger cities. “The net economic impact to the state, to the local area outweighed the impact to existing facilities,” he said.
In April, commissioners rejected in a 4-1 vote a proposed casino in Cedar Rapids, citing the same two studies that indicated Iowa’s gambling market was saturated and new casinos would cannibalize five existing casinos within a 75-mile radius. “Revenues to the state in that kind of scenario is only one factor, but, historically, the impact on existing facilities has carried much more weight,” said Lamberti.
Lamberti said the commission will discuss a moratorium on granting gaming licenses at its July 31 meeting. He stated, “I think this vote clearly reflects a belief that this is a saturated market. As you look at the studies and where we’re at, I think that’s a safe assumption.” The IRGC stopped issuing gaming licenses May 1998 through November 2004, and from July 2005 through May 2010.
William Thompson, a professor and gambling researcher at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas said the commission’s decision to grant a Greene County license was surprising, since the casino will be built in a rural area where gamblers will come from small farming communities and spend money at the casino instead of local businesses. “It amazes me that they keep pushing, but you’re always going to have investors that want more casinos and the government people will say hurray, hurray more tax money. They’re going to drain the local economy,” Thompson said.
Also at the IRGC meeting, the results were presented of a study commissioned by the Iowa legislature, required by state law every eight years. The comprehensive report of the socioeconomic impact of gambling was prepared by the Strategic Economic Group of West Des Moines and Spectrum Gaming Group of New Jersey, indicated Iowa’s gambling industry generates $1.3 billion annually, provides 9,165 direct jobs and an additional 4,813 jobs in other sectors. The study also found about half or Iowa casino patrons live in the state, with nearly one-quarter from Nebraska. Also, according to the report about 9,000 Iowans are problem gamblers but only 678 received treatment through a state-funded program last year.
Also in Iowa, the Bettendorf city council recently reviewed the Isle of Capri Casino’s plan to move from a riverboat to a land-based site. Isle has proposed building a 70,000 square foot casino in the courtyard between its two existing hotel towers along the city’s Mississippi riverfront. The Isle move would mark the end of riverboat casinos in the Quad Cities, as Rhythm City casino riverboat, owned by Dan Kehl, will move from the Davenport riverfront to a new facility at Interstate 74 and 80.
