Riverboats Part 2
Yesterday, we answered the question about Katrina and Southern riverboats. Today, we're focused on northern ones.
Casinos in Indiana are stuck halfway between the riverboat and modern eras. While required to sit in water from 1993 to 2015, they were eventually allowed to make the transition to terra firma by the legislature. To date, five have done so, while new casinos are built on land as a matter of course. Also, two riverboat casinos, Majestic Star I and II, went out of business, replaced by land-based casinos in Gary and Terre Haute. However, six continue to operate in riverboat configurations, mostly on the Ohio River, existing as colorful anachronisms.
Casinos in Iowa were initially required to be on water. But in 2007, legislators redefined casinos as “any man-made stationary structure” that didn’t include a racing oval and was subject to land-based building codes. Gambling halls quickly began coming ashore, starting with Fort Madison’s Catfish Bend Casino in November 2007. The two-decade process will end sometime next year when Ameristar Council Bluffs’ casino is rebuilt off the Missouri River, with the lone exception of the barge that houses obscure Lakeside Hotel & Casino in Osceola.
Unlike Iowa, other states haven't completely weaned themselves from riverboat gambling, neither economically nor in terms of the cramped and antiquated facilities that pass for modern-day casinos. Missouri still requires casinos to be built atop H2O — 34 years after legalization. Unfortunately, it will probably require a natural disaster to change that state of affairs.
Illinois is weaning itself off riverboat casinos, albeit slowly. After Katrina, a provision was passed that required casinos to pay $55 million for the privilege of coming ashore. In 2019, the legislature waived any such requirement. That move coincided with an expansion of the number of Land of Lincoln casinos from 10 to 16.
The number that today sit over the water has declined to four, with both Hollywood Joliet and Hollywood Aurora going to land-based facilities in the past years. A few holdouts remain (including Elgin’s Grand Victoria and Argosy Belle in Alton), probably due to having decided that the risk/reward calculus favors their status quo, ancient though it is. But those are aging casinos and they will probably soon have to decide between staying in cramped riverboat conditions and eventually going out of business — or building land-based casinos.
Boyd Gaming recently punted on the chance to bring its Par-A-Dice operation onshore in Peoria, Illinois, opting to move the barge instead. It cannot be coincidental that the casinos staying put (with the exception of Grand Victoria) are some of the lower-grossing joints in Illinois. It’s just not worth the expense to go onto dry land.
Amazingly, even as riverboats appear to have been selected for extinction by economic Darwinism, some pine for their return. An article in The Corry Journal (Corry, Pennsylvania) wailed for the comeback of space-constricted riverboats and ancient “cruising requirements” (which rarely involved venturing onto open water, truth be known). Whoever the author was, we know of precious few players and even fewer gaming executives who'd concur. They’re almost gone and they’re not coming back.
