{"id":330146,"date":"2024-09-10T10:21:23","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T15:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=330146"},"modified":"2024-09-10T10:26:59","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T15:26:59","slug":"illinois-city-reportedly-trying-to-woo-boyd-gaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/illinois-city-reportedly-trying-to-woo-boyd-gaming\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois City Reportedly Trying to Woo Boyd Gaming With Land-Based Casino Incentives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming has operated the Par-A-Dice Hotel Casino in East Peoria, Ill., for 28 years. Local officials in neighboring Peoria are reportedly hoping to lure Boyd to the west side of the Illinois River for a new brick-and-mortar property.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Illinois
The Par-A-Dice riverboat in Illinois is a short walk from the resort’s hotel. The casino in East Peoria, Ill., is owned and operated by Boyd Gaming. (Image: Boyd Gaming)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WMBD Radio <\/i>obtained communications between Peoria Mayor Rita Ali and East Peoria Mayor John Kahl through a Freedom of Information Act request that provides insight into Peoria’s attempts to bring Boyd into its city limits.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I am most disappointed to learn that you and your fellow officials in Peoria are doing your best to force a business organization to relocate from a neighboring community to yours,” Kahl wrote Ali.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Both mayors declined to comment in response to the WMBD Radio <\/i>report. Boyd Gaming officials also did not respond.<\/span><\/p>\n

WMBD Radio <\/i>added that Peoria recently presented Boyd with a proposal that includes numerous economic incentives should the company decide to invest in a land-based casino in the city.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Par-A-Dice is a riverboat with 202 hotel guestrooms, three restaurants and bars, and a 26,116-square-foot casino floor fitted with 550 slot machines, 18 live dealer table games, and a FanDuel Sportsbook<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Casino Clause<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

When Illinois legalized commercial riverboat gambling in 1990, Peoria and East Peoria partnered to bring one of the casino licenses to the Central Illinois region.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The terms specified that the two cities would split a casino’s tax benefit equally. The pact also said any riverboat would dock on the eastern shore of the Illinois River, and if land-based casinos became allowed in the future, brick-and-mortar casinos would reside in Peoria.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In 2019, in part of the state’s gambling expansion<\/a> to include a downtown Chicago<\/a> integrated resort and five smaller casinos in the Windy City suburbs<\/a>, Illinois lawmakers said the current 10 riverboats could move inland with approval from the Illinois Gaming Board and a $250K fee.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ali defended her city’s actions in her email reply to Kahl.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

We are not trying to force relocation,” she told Kahl. “We came to believe that Boyd Gaming may be interested in expanding to include a land-based casino. We wanted to make sure they understood our signed agreement.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Ali said Peoria objects to a brick-and-mortar casino in East Peoria because it “violates a trust.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Riverboat Has Seen Better Days<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Par-A-Dice could certainly use some reenergizing, as the riverboat has seen visitation and gaming revenue drop significantly over the past several years.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2017, the Boyd Gaming riverboat counted 776,176 admissions to the casino floor. Players lost more than $78.9 million that year, which generated local taxes exceeding $4.7 million.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2019, Par-A-Dice welcomed fewer than 700K guests who generated gross gaming revenue of $72.8 million. That delivered a local tax benefit of about $4.3 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2022, admissions tumbled to 432,334, with GGR totaling $60.7 million and local taxes of $3.5 million. Last year, the casino saw admissions improve to 441,762 and gaming revenue rise to almost $63.5 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Despite the 2023 year-over-year gains, last year’s attendance remained 43% below 2017 and GGR remained suppressed by 19.5%.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Boyd Gaming acquired Par-A-Dice in April 1996 for $163 million. The sellers were the original group of local investors who built the riverboat casino and hotel that opened about three years earlier. Par-A-Dice was the second riverboat to open in Illinois following the Alton Belle, which is today the Argosy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Illinois’ gaming law initially required riverboats to sail<\/a> daily, but that condition was lifted in 1999.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming operates the Par-A-Dice Hotel Casino in East Peoria, Il.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":330149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84799,1],"tags":[82050,82368,82229,82228,91058,92281,87417,82516],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIllinois City Reportedly Trying to Woo Boyd Gaming<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming has operated the Par-A-Dice Hotel Casino in East Peoria, Il., for over 28 years.\" \/>\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\/illinois-city-reportedly-trying-to-woo-boyd-gaming\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Illinois City Reportedly Trying to Woo Boyd Gaming\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming has operated the Par-A-Dice Hotel Casino in East Peoria, Il., for over 28 years.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/illinois-city-reportedly-trying-to-woo-boyd-gaming\/\" \/>\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=\"2024-09-10T15:21:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-10T15:26:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/F_9C0Y1XwAMk3Lq.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"737\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Devin O'Connor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@CasinoorgDevinO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Devin O'Connor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/illinois-city-reportedly-trying-to-woo-boyd-gaming\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/illinois-city-reportedly-trying-to-woo-boyd-gaming\/\",\"name\":\"Illinois City Reportedly Trying to Woo Boyd Gaming\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/illinois-city-reportedly-trying-to-woo-boyd-gaming\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/illinois-city-reportedly-trying-to-woo-boyd-gaming\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/F_9C0Y1XwAMk3Lq.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-09-10T15:21:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-09-10T15:26:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/02b4fee8814a4003903b0021bffb4ebf\"},\"description\":\"Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming has operated the Par-A-Dice Hotel Casino in East Peoria, Il., for over 28 years.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/illinois-city-reportedly-trying-to-woo-boyd-gaming\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/illinois-city-reportedly-trying-to-woo-boyd-gaming\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/illinois-city-reportedly-trying-to-woo-boyd-gaming\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/F_9C0Y1XwAMk3Lq.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/F_9C0Y1XwAMk3Lq.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":737,\"caption\":\"The Par-A-Dice riverboat in Illinois is a short walk from the resort's hotel. 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