SOUTH SIOUX CITY, Neb. (AP) – The Winnebago Tribe’s business arm intends to develop a casino at a former horse track in Nebraska, where casino gambling is not allowed.
Chief executive Lance Morgan of Ho-Chunk Inc. told the Sioux City (Iowa) Journal (http://bit.ly/18z6abT) that the casino would be located at Atokad Downs in South Sioux City, Neb. Ho-Chunk bought the track property last year after the track was closed by the Nebraska Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association.
The Atokad development would include a casino, an events center, several dining options and retail shops, Morgan said.
Ho-Chunk was among the losing bidders last month to build and operate a land-based casino to replace the floating Argosy casino in Sioux City, Iowa.
“We went from losing to focusing on Atokad after lunch that day,” Morgan said.
A market analysis shows a South Sioux City casino could win up to 25 percent of the area gambling business, Morgan said. Winnebago Tribal officials fear the larger, land-based Hard Rock-themed casino in Sioux City will hurt business at the tribe’s WinnaVegas Casino Resort, which sits 18 miles away, west of Sloan, Iowa.
The Atokad project is part of Ho-Chunk’s survival strategy, he said.
“The alternative is to do nothing and wait for Hard Rock to be built and wait for someone to take our market share,” Morgan said. “We need to do what every other American company does when faced with competition and act strategically.”
Morgan acknowledged that the Nebraska ban on casino gambling will be a tough hurdle. The state allows keno, horse racing and a lottery but has resisted video gambling machines and casinos.
Casino opponents have already spoken out against a proposed constitutional amendment this year that would give the Legislature the power to authorize and regulate games of chance. The question could go before voters in November 2014, though it has stalled in committee.
Resulting revenue to the state would be divided three ways: Fifty percent would go toward K-12 education, 49 percent into health care programs and 1 percent to a treatment fund for compulsive gamblers.
Anti-gambling groups say the promise of education and health care funding is a ploy to win favor with voters.
“We believe it removes the power from the people, and it is in an attempt to override what Nebraskans have spoken loudly on,” said Pat Loontjer, director of Gambling with the Good Life.
Nebraska voters rejected two proposals in 2004 that would have allowed casino gambling – one touted by Las Vegas casino interests, the other by the Nebraska Legislature.
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Information from: Sioux City Journal, www.siouxcityjournal.com
