Senate Joint Resolution 9, recently introduced in the South Dakota legislature, would ask voters approve a constitutional amendment allowing a nonprofit group to hold a gaming license in Yankton in the southeastern part of the state, near the Nebraska border. Meanwhile, a pro-casino group, Yankton Area Progressive Growth, is promoting the proposed $50 million Port Yankton entertainment complex that would include a casino, hotel, condos and restaurants in the 1,000 square foot, 1890s Gurney Seed and Nursery building in down Yankton on the Missouri River. The group released a study indicating the project’s first-year revenue would surpass $35 million.
Project organizer, former State Senator Bernie Hunhoff, said, “Somebody from the entertainment industry in Iowa came to us and said, ‘What’re you guys doing? There’s a real niche here, a real market opportunity for Yankton. Especially with your national parks and already the kind of visitation you’re getting, there’s a real opportunity for Yankton. You guys are just sitting on your hands.’ Well, we didn’t even know that market existed, but I guarantee the gaming industry and entertainment industry knew it all along. So, there’s a real financial opportunity not just for Yankton, but for the state of South Dakota.”
In 1988, South Dakota voters passed a constitutional amendment allowing casino gambling in Deadwood. First, gambling supporters had to collect around 27,000 signatures to place the constitutional amendment on the ballot. A similar process would be required for the Yankton casino.
Hunhoff said Port Yankton would have only one gaming license, held by a nonprofit company and leased to a private company. The city would earn money from property taxes and leasing fees from the building.
“Port Yankton will allow us to use gaming to produce all sorts of amenities and quality-of-life benefits that our city of 15,000 just can’t afford otherwise. It looks to me that it could raise a million dollars a year for the community that would be invested in parks, pools, libraries and all the things that we really need to compete for workers and for families,” Hunhoff said. He noted gaming tax revenue would go to the state.
Not everyone is a booster of the casino idea. Yankton Mayor Jake Hoffner said, “The gaming portion is a small portion of it and I don’t like the gaming portion,” although he acknowledged gaming most likely would be key to attracting a developer.
Other opponents include a coalition of Nebraska and South Dakota tribes. Yankton Sioux Chairman Robert Flying Hawk said 11 tribal casinos in the region would be negatively impacted by the plan. “The Port Yankton project threatens the livelihood of South Dakota’s tribes and the state’s economy,” he said.
In addition, Mike Rodman of the Deadwood Gaming Association said his organization also opposes a Yankton casino.
