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Last updated on Thursday, October 9, 2014
(GARY) - Gary’s riverboat casinos are scaling back their longstanding plea to move to the city’s downtown.
Majestic Star CEO Pete Liguori acknowledges there's too much opposition, both from legislators and from rival casinos who don't have a similar inland alternative available.
Instead, Liguori's asking legislators to let Majestic Star move the casino location within its existing footprint, from Lake Michigan to the front side of Majestic Star's hotel. He says even that much of a move would give gamblers easier access, and create more room for a makeover.
The Rising Star Casino in Rising Sun wants to do a similar remodel on a smaller scale.
Members of a legislative study committee appeared receptive to the request. But Florence's Belterra Casino warns legislators need to be careful how they define a casino's "footprint," to ensure they don't end up giving casinos a blank check to build anywhere they want.
Liguori notes legislators have already carved out an exception for the French Lick casino and have allowed slot machines at horse-racing tracks in Anderson and Shelby County. And he argues some of the state's other casinos, like the Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg, are so massive that, for practical purposes, they're already land-based.
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