Iowa Riverboat Casinos on Artificial Pools Not Rivers
Iowa's new riverboat casinos have plenty of glamour and gambling, but they don't have any natural rivers.
Neither the Diamond Jo Worth Casino on Interstate Highway 35 near the Minnesota border nor the Wild Rose Casino in Emmetsburg is cruising on a navigable body of water. Yet both are still legally considered "excursion gambling boats."
To comply with state regulations, the $40 million Diamond Jo Worth Casino, which opened recently, was constructed over an artificial basin of water that is practically invisible to gamblers except for a wooden paddlewheel in a small pool near the entrance. The depth of the water in the basin varies, depending upon rainfall, but should always be at least 6 to 12 inches deep, said spokeswoman Carrie Tedore.
The Wild Rose Casino complex, which cost $38 million and opened in late May, has a 12.5-acre lake. The casino floor extends over water that will normally be 4 to 6 feet deep, said spokeswoman Jamie Buelt. There will be walking trails around the lake, which will be 22 feet at its deepest point when full.
Other new riverboat casinos planned in Riverside, Waterloo, Burlington and Clinton also will essentially be land-based facilities built with water underneath them, said Jack Ketterer, administrator of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission. All of them will be classified under Iowa's excursion boat gambling law as "moored barges," he added.
"Most of them will have some type of a water feature, but the customers probably wouldn't know it when they are on the casino floor, although it kind of depends upon the facility," Ketterer said.
Although Iowa has 10 gambling boats located on navigable bodies of water, the Mississippi Belle II in Clinton is the only one that still regularly offers cruises.
The Clinton floating gambling casino travels on the Mississippi River for two-hour afternoon trips each Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Those free cruises will cease when Clinton's new land-based Wild Rose Casino opens on U.S. Highway 30 on the city's west side late next year, replacing the Mississippi Belle II, Buelt said.
"This is certainly a far cry from when we started" riverboat gambling 15 years ago, said Muscatine businessman Robert Miller, who headed a local group that briefly sponsored a floating casino. Iowa was the first state in the nation to offer riverboat gambling, launching five casino vessels on the Mississippi River in 1991.
June 25, 2006
Posted By Larry Rutherford
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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