Slightly more than 1,700 hotel and casino workers will be employed by the three Quad-Cities casino companies once neighboring Jumer’s Casino & Hotel’s land-based operation in Rock Island is joined by Rhythm City and Isle of Capri early this summer.
Rhythm City’s manager of operations, Mo Hyder, said that upon completion of the casino’s transformation and relocation from a boat along Davenport’s riverfront to a new $110 million land-based casino near I-74 and I-80, the number of employees will increase from 250 to approximately 650, according to Dispatch-Argus.
According to company spokeswoman Jill Alexander, Isle of Capri in Bettendorf has 541 employees and that number will increase by approximately 30 when the new 35,000 square foot gaming floor is completed in the current courtyard between the two Isle’s hotel towers.
Prior to relocating from a riverboat casino on Rock Island in Davenport, Illinois, on December 1, 2008, to its current location just off Interstate 280, 350 people were employed by Jumer’s. According to spokesman Bill Renk, today the casino, which is one of the largest land-based casinos in Illinois, employs 508 people.
While falling short of expectations set 25 years ago, the combined 1,700 employees expected by the casinos this year would make them the Quad-Cities ninth or 10th largest employer, depending on which “top employers” list is used.
In January 2014, the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission approved the sale of the Rhythm City riverboat to Kehl Management Corporation from the Isle of Capri for $51 million. In June of last year the company broke ground for the new land-based casino in Davenport. The resort features a six-story hotel with 106 rooms, a 33,800-square-foot gaming floor and is slated to open on June 16.