Many factors will influence which town gets the license to operate a casino in the Cedar Rapids area of Linn County, Iowa. Among them are population movement and community support.
Brian Ohorilko, administrator of Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission told Iowa PBS, “Community support is a factor,” adding “I have been through five of these in different capacities with the commission: very spirited conversations, very difficult decisions.”
The voters of Linn County last month approved a referendum that authorizes any city in the county to apply for a license to operate a casino, although only one community will be issued a license.
Twice in six years the commission has turned down applications to operate a casino in Cedar Rapids. One reason is the fear of saturating the market. Existing casinos include one each in Waterloo and Riverside and eight on the Mississippi River. A market study done in 2017 showed a “significant market impact” if a new casino were to open in Cedar Rapids, said Ohorilko.
“Five years later we are interested to see what has changed in the report,” he said. “The population of Iowa hasn’t really grown, but we have seen a shift to more urban areas. And so it will be interesting and we are waiting to see what these studies show to get a better idea as to if there are any overserved or underserved markets in this state.”
The administrator called the Iowa sports gaming market “a very competitive industry right now,” which generated $6 million in state taxes in 2019 from 17 gaming companies licensed to operate online sportsbooks—with four more waiting in the wings. Nearly nine-tenths of sports betting in Iowa is online, he said.
He told Iowa PBS, “We have had very few regulatory issues. We will continue to provide regulatory oversight. And it has just been a really good story to this point in time.”
