If officials inward Terre Haute, Ind., had their way, the gambling casino that would follow coming to the westward central Hoosier State town would be a Hard Rock.
Last month, the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce, the Vigo County Council, and all triad members of the county’s Board of Commissioners sent letters to Indiana Gaming Commission Executive Director Greg Small. The letters verbalised their support for the Florida-based gaming company’s proposal.
Casino.org obtained the letters Tuesday through and through an unfastened records bespeak to the commission.
The letters were likewise worded and touched upon collimate themes. That included noting Hard Rock’s externalize is to the full designed and could gaolbreak ground shortly after the IGC makes its award.
That honour escort is mark for Nov. 17.
Locals: Hard Rock Ready to Roll
The commissioners and chamber officials also noted that the construction jobs resulting from the send off would generate more than $3 one thousand thousand in local wages, with tens of millions spent on subcontractors and suppliers inwards the area.
“We exhort you to fill in this physical process in an expedited style and strongly deliberate the persuasion of the biotic community in this matter,” said Vigo County Commissioners Ivan Mike Gouverneur Morris and Chris Switzer inward their Sept. 17 letters.
Chamber President Kristin Craig and 2021 Board Chair Saint John Collett included the same contrast in their Sept. 20 letter.
Hard John Rock International is i of four applicants for the gambling casino license. Churchill Downs Incorporated, Full House Resorts, and Terre Haute Entertainment, a partnership that includes Premier Gaming Group, also submitted bids past the Sept. 22 deadline.
In a notice on its website, the IGC told potency applicants that 1 factor in body politic officials must turn over when making an grant is whether there’s “a resolution of support” from the local biotic community for the applicant. It’s i of viii factors, but none of them are weighted.
IGC Deputy Director William Le Baron Jenny Reske told Casino.org Tues that local back up is not a requirement for licensure.
Terre Haute Businessman Involved in Casino Venture
A spokesperson for Hard Rock declined to remark directly on the letters, and referred inquiries to a statement COO Jon Lucas gave Casino.org utmost Wednesday. That was regarding the company’s partnership with Terre Haute man of affairs Greg Gibson on the venture.
“Hard Rock International (HRI) is excited for the chance to get our unique make of mankind socio-economic class entertainment to Terre Haute,” Lucas said. “We expect a development cost of nearly $200 Million, in add-on to the 175 onsite hotel rooms, 2,000 jobs during 2 construction phases, and $50 Million a year in yearbook county and province revenue enhancement revenue one time the projection is operational.”
Gibson led Lucy Luck, the hazard that antecedently held the casino license. However, to a greater extent than a year after winning the license, the IGC took the believed-to-be unprecedented step of not renewing it. The land gaming regulatory organic structure cited the deficiency of construction, as good as concerns most executive director staffing and funding for the venture, for their conclusion inwards June.
Lucy Luck’s plans were to build a Hard John Rock casino. Those plans called for up to 1,150 expansion slot machines and 50 tabularize games.
In the financial statement shoemaker's last week, Lucas noted that Hard John Rock would manage the day-to-day operations of the casino. It appears to follow a similar setup to the new anatomical structure for Hard John Rock Northern Indiana.
Hard John Rock bought the absolute majority stake from Gibson’s Spectacle Entertainment inwards August, after the IGC had questions nearly Spectacle’s suitableness as the permission holder. Those questions mainly stemmed from a lengthy investigating into the fellowship and Gibson’s former partner, Rod Ratcliff.
While not naming Gibson specifically, the seven-member Vigo County Council cited inward its Sept. 22 letter of the alphabet Hard Rock’s “local member,” and their contributions to the community.
This same local fellow member worked hand in hand with our local leaders and legislators to turn over House Enrolled Act 1015 and micturate the licensing of a cassino inward Vigo County possible,” the council wrote.
That law of nature was passed by country lawmakers inward 2019. Not only if did it bring home the bacon a land-based gambling casino certify for Vigo County, ratified by local voters that November, it also legalized sports betting crosswise the state.