In Indiana, regional casino operator, Full House Resorts Incorporated, has announced that it intends to ask for legislative permission to relocate a portion the gambling games hosted by its Rising Star Casino Resort to a new facility in the city of Terre Haute.

Second request:

The Las Vegas-based firm used an official Monday press release to reveal that this will mark the second time it will have asked for such authorization following the failure of a previous proposal filed in late-2016 with help from Indiana State Senator Jon Ford (pictured). This initial pitch would have allowed the operator to build a $150 million casino in the city of some 171,000 people before filling it with up to half of the games licensed for its Rising Star Casino Resort.

Preference concerns:

However, Full House Resorts Incorporated declared that its previous request failed to make it out of the Indiana State Senate’s Public Policy Committee due to concerns that it had ‘unfairly favored a single casino operator’. In response, the firm stated that it helped to draft legislation earlier this year that would permit any operator ‘to compete for a Terre Haute casino’ with no need to vacate ‘investments made in their original home communities.’

Competitor interest:

The move from Full House Resorts Incorporated follows a recent revelation from the new owner of Gary’s riverboat Majestic Star Casino Hotel and Majestic Star Casino Hotel II, Spectacle Entertainment, that it too intends to lobby for permission to open a gambling facility in Terre Haute, which is located along the banks of the Wabash River only about five miles from Indiana’s border with Illinois.

City is a ‘prime location’:

Alex Stolyar, Chief Development Officer and Senior Vice-President for Full House Resorts Incorporated, proclaimed that he had ‘seen the recent reports’ regarding Spectacle Entertainment’s intentions before asserting that such a proposal ‘supports our thesis that Terre Haute is a prime location’ for some of Indiana’s ‘unused gaming resources.’

Stolyar’s statement read…

“Since we began exploring opportunities in Terre Haute three years ago, we have been overwhelmed by the level of support that the city has shown for a gaming facility. We worked with the Terre Haute City Council, Vigo County Commissioners, Chamber of Commerce and many other organizations to demonstrate that support to Indiana legislators. We look forward to an opportunity to compete with all interested operators to present the best proposal for Terre Haute and for Indiana.”

Unused allocation:

Alongside the riverboat Rising Star Casino Resort in rural Ohio County, Full House Resorts Incorporated is responsible for Nevada’s Grand Lodge Casino and Stockman’s Casino as well as the Silver Slipper Casino Hotel in southern Mississippi and Colorado’s Bronco Billy’s Casino. The operator’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Lee, explained that every casino in Indiana is currently ‘using fewer gambling games than the existing law allows’ and that such a situation is ‘costing the state millions in unrealized tax revenues.’

Lee’s statement read…

“We continue to invest millions of dollars in the Rising Sun Casino Resort but the expansion of gaming in neighboring states has ensured that many of our authorized games will never be needed in that market. Rather than close and move the Rising Star Casino Resort, we would prefer to compete for the opportunity by relocating our unused games to a new facility in Terre Haute. We believe that creates a win-win for the Rising Sun Casino Resort, Terre Haute and all of Indiana.”