Michael Brown of Joliet is the kind of visitor Beloit hopes to attract in 2026.
On a June Saturday night at the Hard Rock Casino in Rockford, Illinois, Brown waited patiently for his turn to roll the dice at a craps table. Brown was in Rockford to watch his grandson play in a summer baseball tournament, and he had time to kill and “$500 to lose.”
When told that the Ho-Chunk Nation is building a $500 million casino/hotel/convention center in Beloit less than a 15-minute [drive] to the north on Interstate-90, he said he would “probably check it out.”
“It’s not like I go to casinos every weekend,” he said with a laugh.
