Odds are good the Indiana General Assembly will be asked next year to revisit the issue of a satellite casino in Terre Haute and it’s a safe bet opponents will stand their ground.
About a dozen government and business leaders met this week with a casino developer and those contacted by the Tribune-Star said they are in favor of another bid.
“I will continue to support an economic development opportunity such as this that will bring in $150 million of private investment,” Mayor Duke Bennett said Thursday.
“We feel a casino is the wrong fit for our community,” said T.J. Hellmann of Casino Free Vigo County. “We’re prepared as a community to raise those issues once again and to continue to fight for economic solutions that we feel like are a better fit.”
A facility proposed by Full House Resorts, owner of Rising Star Casino in southeastern Indiana, would generate several hundred construction jobs, more than 700 jobs to operate the casino and provide nearly $10 million in new tax and fee revenue that would directly support the community, Bennett noted.
“I’m glad we’re thinking about it now instead of scrambling to get support at the last minute,” said City Council President Karrum Nasser. “I’m fully in support of it.”
Vigo County Commissioners President Judy Anderson and Commissioner Jon Marvel also voiced continued support. David Haynes, president of the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce, did not return a message seeking comment.
Alex Stolyar, senior vice president and chief development officer with Full House, said the meeting was “about what went well (last year) and what did not go well and how to proceed going forward.”
Terre Haute showed strong community support last year and a Terre Haute casino had bipartisan support in the General Assembly, Stolyar said, even though the proposal was defeated in a tie vote of the Senate Public Policy Committee.
“We remain very interested and committed,” Stolyar said.
State Sen. Jon Ford, R-Terre Haute, who led the legislative effort for a casino earlier this year, said late Thursday he is not ready to say whether he will sponsor similar legislation next session.
Stolyar said Ford is “very interested in the development and is figuring out the best way to make that happen.”
Stolyar continues to suggest that Terre Haute and Danville, Ill., are competing to see which Wabash Valley city will be first with a casino.
“If it is a horse race then Danville is ahead of Terre Haute right now,” he said, noting a bill that included a Danville casino cleared the full state senate in Springfield this spring while Terre Haute settled for a tie in Indianapolis.
Ideas discussed for lobbying state lawmakers included sending busloads of local residents to the Statehouse and inviting House Speaker Brian Bosma (R-Indianapolis) and Senate President Pro Tempore David Long (R-Fort Wayne) to visit Terre Haute to see first hand the state’s economic needs, said Nasser.
Stolyar proposed a meeting with Terre Haute residents who are concerned about a casino.
“What I would like to do is sit down with the opponents and say, ‘I’m willing to work with you on what we can do to make this development something as manageable as possible for you – understanding that you do not support a casino.”
While some opponents are flatly opposed to gaming, others may have a misconception about what is proposed for Terre Haute, Stolyar said.
The facility would be the smallest casino in the state and would use about 750 gaming positions - table games and slot machines - authorized for Rising Star Casino but not used there. It would include a hotel, entertainment venue, upscale bars and meeting spaces, according to developers.
Opponent Jeanne Rewa stood firm Thursday.
“A casino in Terre Haute will not only fail to deliver on its economic promises, but much worse, it will prey on the more vulnerable parts of our community,” Rewa said. “Bringing a casino to our town would mean exchanging new social, health, and economic costs for empty promises.”