{"id":168596,"date":"2021-03-25T17:06:15","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T00:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=168596"},"modified":"2021-07-07T01:33:19","modified_gmt":"2021-07-07T08:33:19","slug":"wisconsin-governor-oks-plans-for-ho-chunk-casino-on-illinois-state-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wisconsin-governor-oks-plans-for-ho-chunk-casino-on-illinois-state-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin Governor OKs Plans for Ho-Chunk Casino on Illinois State Line"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wisconsin\u2019s Democratic Governor Tony Evers on Wednesday approved plans for a Ho-Chunk Nation casino in the city of Beloit, on the Illinois border.<\/p>\n

\"Ho-Chunk\"
Wisconsin\u2019s Democratic Gov. Tony Evers was a supporter of the Ho-Chunk casino during his 2018 election campaign. (Image: TonyEvers.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The governor\u2019s blessing comes almost a year after the US Department of the Interior approved the Ho-Chunk application to put a 73-acre parcel of land into trust for the tribe.<\/p>\n

The application was pending for almost seven years, and it\u2019s been nearly 22 years since Beloit residents approved the project in a public referendum.<\/p>\n

More recently, the city has been in a race with Rockford, Illinois, 17 miles away, to get their respective casino proposals up and running. Currently, Beloit is winning.<\/p>\n

This, despite Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) once vowing<\/a> to do \u201ceverything possible\u201d to help gain first-mover advantage for Rockford.<\/p>\n

A Rock and a Hard Place<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Illinois Gaming Board has other ideas<\/a>. It has issued preliminary approval for a Rockford proposal from Hard Rock International, but is dragging its feet on rubber-stamping a license, to the frustration of city officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were hoping to counter [the Ho-Chunk casino] with Hard Rock, pulling people from all over the Midwest,” Illinois state Sen. Dave Syverson (R-35th) told the Associated Press.<\/p>\n

He called Evers\u2019 approval \u201cdisappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Once it gets up and running under the Hard Rock brand, it will have a positive impact. In the meantime, if Beloit opens up before us, there’s no question it will have a negative impact on Northern Illinois,\u201d Syverson added.<\/p>\n

\n

Hard Rock has guaranteed Rockford $7 million a year in gaming tax revenue and fees. But the agreement also stipulates the size of these payments could be renegotiated if a new casino were to open within 50 miles of the city.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

During a media call Wednesday, Beloit city manager Lori Curtis Luther told reporters construction on the Ho-Chunk project was likely to start within a year. A time frame has not been determined for completion, although the complex will likely be built in phases.<\/p>\n

Big Ideas<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Eventually, it will be the second-biggest casino in Wisconsin, behind the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino in Milwaukee. When finished, it will boast 2,200 free slot machines<\/a>, a hotel tower with 300 rooms, a 40,000-square-foot indoor waterpark, five restaurants, retail shopping, a concert venue, and conference space \u2013 all within striking distance from Chicago.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Evers praised the project as an economic revitalizer, emphasizing it will provide more than 2,000 short-term construction jobs and 1,500 long-term jobs when completed.<\/p>\n

Since the proposal is for an off-reservation casino, the governor did have the power to veto it under federal law. But that was never in the cards. Evers has voiced his support for the $405 million proposal since before his election in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we work to bounce back from this pandemic, we must do everything we can to support economic development in communities across our state,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wisconsin\u2019s Democratic Governor Tony Evers on Wednesday approved plans for a Ho-Chunk Nation casino in the city of Beloit, on the Illinois border. The governor\u2019s blessing comes almost a year after the US Department of the Interior approved the Ho-Chunk application to put a 73-acre parcel of land into trust for the tribe. The application […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":168598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,18456],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWisconsin Governor OKs Plans for Ho-Chunk Casino on Illinois State Line<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ho-Chunk casino gains approval from Wisconsin governor Tony Evers as Beloit pulls ahead of Rockford and Hard Rock in casino race.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wisconsin-governor-oks-plans-for-ho-chunk-casino-on-illinois-state-line\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wisconsin Governor OKs Plans for Ho-Chunk Casino on Illinois State Line\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ho-Chunk casino gains approval from Wisconsin governor Tony Evers as Beloit pulls ahead of Rockford and Hard Rock in casino race.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wisconsin-governor-oks-plans-for-ho-chunk-casino-on-illinois-state-line\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-26T00:06:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-07T08:33:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/tony.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1333\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wisconsin-governor-oks-plans-for-ho-chunk-casino-on-illinois-state-line\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wisconsin-governor-oks-plans-for-ho-chunk-casino-on-illinois-state-line\/\",\"name\":\"Wisconsin Governor OKs Plans for Ho-Chunk Casino on Illinois State Line\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wisconsin-governor-oks-plans-for-ho-chunk-casino-on-illinois-state-line\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wisconsin-governor-oks-plans-for-ho-chunk-casino-on-illinois-state-line\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/tony.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-26T00:06:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-07-07T08:33:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Ho-Chunk casino gains approval from Wisconsin governor Tony Evers as Beloit pulls ahead of Rockford and Hard Rock in casino race.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wisconsin-governor-oks-plans-for-ho-chunk-casino-on-illinois-state-line\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wisconsin-governor-oks-plans-for-ho-chunk-casino-on-illinois-state-line\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wisconsin-governor-oks-plans-for-ho-chunk-casino-on-illinois-state-line\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/tony.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/tony.jpg\",\"width\":2000,\"height\":1333,\"caption\":\"Wisconsin\u2019s Democratic Gov. 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