A proposed five-year moratorium on new state-licensed casinos in Iowa will not be passed into law, a key legislator said Tuesday, clearing the way for state regulators to decide later this week on a proposal for a new casino in Cedar Rapids.
Iowa Sen. Ken Rozenboom, a Republican from Oskaloosa, announced Tuesday afternoon that House File 144, which would have prohibited any new state casino licenses for at least five years, will not advance in the Iowa Senate this year.
The proposal passed the Iowa House last week, just as it also did at the end of the 2023 legislative session.
But in both cases, the proposal died in the Senate.
“According to my conversations, this bill did not have enough support from Senate Republicans to advance all the way through the Senate process,” Rozenboom, who chairs the Senate State Government Committee that was considering the bill, said in a statement. “In the interest of moving this session forward to other issues of critical importance to Iowans, I have no plans to reconsider the legislation for the remainder of this session.”
Rozenboom added, “I am no fan of gambling and my decision not to advance this legislation should not be considered in support of casino expansion.”
The five-member Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission meets Thursday to decide whether to grant a license for a planned $275 million casino and entertainment center near downtown Cedar Rapids.
“The next hurdle is the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission so our focus remains on that now,” Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell told reporters after Rozenboom announced he would not bring forward the bill in committee. “I’m really hopeful that the commission will see the overall economic development opportunity we have with this project. … It’s a $275 million entertainment venue that will bring new life to a part of Cedar Rapids downtown that was decimated in the floods of 2008.”
The casino would be built on Cedar Rapids’ northwest side on vacant land that was once the site of a hotel until it was demolished after sustaining damage in the 2008 and 2016 floods.
The proposed Cedar Crossing Casino & Entertainment Center would include 700 slot machines, 22 game tables, restaurants, bars, an entertainment venue with a 1,500-person capacity, an arts and cultural center and a STEM lab for children.
The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission twice has rejected proposals — in 2014 and 2017 — to bring a casino to Cedar Rapids. At the time, commissioners cited concerns that a new facility would siphon off existing customers from current casino properties in Eastern Iowa.
Two market studies ordered by the commission say a proposed Cedar Rapids casino would largely rely on pulling patrons and revenue from other Iowa casinos, but add approximately $60 million in net new gaming revenues to Iowa annually.
The state’s existing casinos support a moratorium, saying Iowa’s casino market — with 19 commercial casinos and four tribal casinos — is saturated and that a new facility would “cannibalize” revenues from them.
Casino operators and business, government and nonprofit leaders from Davenport, Dubuque, Waterloo, Cedar Falls, Riverside and the Meskwaki Nation have warned that granting a Linn County casino license would lead to job losses and business closures, and strain local government and nonprofit budgets due to reduced tax and grant revenue from gambling operations.
“The second-biggest city in Iowa is a big bully,” Patty Koller, executive director of the Washington County Riverboat Foundation, told lawmakers Tuesday during a Senate subcommittee hearing on the House bill.
The Riverboat Foundation serves as the nonprofit affiliate and gaming license holder for Riverside Casino & Golf Resort.
“Every few years our livelihood is threatened,” Koller said of the push to build a casino in Cedar Rapids. “It needs to stop. And only you, senators, can do it. Casinos in Iowa are not pure free-market capitalism enterprises. They are licensed, highly regulated and the cost of entry is very steep. … Iowans want the regulation. We want the quality and integrity of highly regulated casinos. What we don’t want is Cedar Rapids threatening our economy and our rural neighborhood every few years.”
Backers say the state’s second-largest city should be allowed to benefit from gaming, the same as other communities, and that growth in Iowa’s gaming industry and competition from neighboring states could make the proposed casino more relevant.
O’Donnell and representatives from Iowa State Building and Construction Trades Council, North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters, Master Builders of Iowa and affiliated local unions said the proposed casino would boost the local economy, create jobs, support community projects and enhance the quality of life by attracting more tourists and providing more entertainment options.
“Times are different today, I believe,” O’Donnell said. “ … The time is right. The data shows that and our city is a very different position, too. It’s my hope the commission sees this for the economic development opportunity that it is.”
An economic impact study commissioned by the casino developer projects a Cedar Rapids casino would generate $2.25 billion from construction in the first 10 years of operations. It’s expected to support 792 construction jobs and employ 365 workers once open. The study also projects the casino would generate more than $43.5 million in tax revenue, with state and local contributions at more than $34 million.
Casino developer Peninsula Pacific Entertainment and the Linn County Gaming Association also have committed to distributing 8 percent of net adjusted gross revenue to nonprofit organizations annually — more than twice the state-mandated minimum. Of that, 10 percent would be distributed to nonprofits in adjacent counties.
An influx of funding from a casino would help nonprofits meet needs and expand services in areas like foster care, homelessness, food insecurity and health care, according to the Linn County Gaming Association, the nonprofit affiliate and charitable arm that jointly applied for a Cedar Rapids casino license with P2E.
The Iowa House last week voted 68-31 to pass House File 144 that would retroactively enact a five-year moratorium on issuing new casino licenses in the state from Jan. 1, 2025 through June 30, 2030.
The bill also proposed new criteria that the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission would use to consider future casinos, including whether and how much it would drain revenues from existing gambling facilities in Iowa.
The wording effectively would have prohibited state gambling regulators from granting a casino license in Linn County in the future.
While the bill included a retroactive clause — leaving open the possibility for lawmakers to overrule the commission should regulators approve a Cedar Rapids casino license — Rozenboom, speaking to reporters Tuesday after the committee, said it’s time to move on to other issues.
"At the end of the day we do have a regulatory process and commission that deals with this and that's not an unusual position for Senate Republicans to simply say: 'Well, we have a process in place. Let's just follow the process rather than micromanage them,'" Rozenboom told reporters. "… We're not going to keep getting bogged down on this issue. It's obviously taken a lot of the oxygen out of the room. We've got other things to work on. Let's work on those."
Rozenboom, though, left the door open to reconsidering the guidelines the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission must consider when granting new casino licenses.
“That’s a fair question, and in subsequent years we may deal with that,” he said.
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Iowa Sen. Ken Rozenboom, a Republican from Oskaloosa, announced Tuesday afternoon that House File 144, which would have prohibited any new state casino licenses for at least five years, will not advance in the Iowa Senate this year.
The proposal passed the Iowa House last week, just as it also did at the end of the 2023 legislative session.
But in both cases, the proposal died in the Senate.
“According to my conversations, this bill did not have enough support from Senate Republicans to advance all the way through the Senate process,” Rozenboom, who chairs the Senate State Government Committee that was considering the bill, said in a statement. “In the interest of moving this session forward to other issues of critical importance to Iowans, I have no plans to reconsider the legislation for the remainder of this session.”
Rozenboom added, “I am no fan of gambling and my decision not to advance this legislation should not be considered in support of casino expansion.”
The five-member Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission meets Thursday to decide whether to grant a license for a planned $275 million casino and entertainment center near downtown Cedar Rapids.
“The next hurdle is the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission so our focus remains on that now,” Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell told reporters after Rozenboom announced he would not bring forward the bill in committee. “I’m really hopeful that the commission will see the overall economic development opportunity we have with this project. … It’s a $275 million entertainment venue that will bring new life to a part of Cedar Rapids downtown that was decimated in the floods of 2008.”
Riverside foundation director: Cedar Rapids is ‘a big bully’
The casino would be built on Cedar Rapids’ northwest side on vacant land that was once the site of a hotel until it was demolished after sustaining damage in the 2008 and 2016 floods.
The proposed Cedar Crossing Casino & Entertainment Center would include 700 slot machines, 22 game tables, restaurants, bars, an entertainment venue with a 1,500-person capacity, an arts and cultural center and a STEM lab for children.
The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission twice has rejected proposals — in 2014 and 2017 — to bring a casino to Cedar Rapids. At the time, commissioners cited concerns that a new facility would siphon off existing customers from current casino properties in Eastern Iowa.
Two market studies ordered by the commission say a proposed Cedar Rapids casino would largely rely on pulling patrons and revenue from other Iowa casinos, but add approximately $60 million in net new gaming revenues to Iowa annually.
The state’s existing casinos support a moratorium, saying Iowa’s casino market — with 19 commercial casinos and four tribal casinos — is saturated and that a new facility would “cannibalize” revenues from them.
Casino operators and business, government and nonprofit leaders from Davenport, Dubuque, Waterloo, Cedar Falls, Riverside and the Meskwaki Nation have warned that granting a Linn County casino license would lead to job losses and business closures, and strain local government and nonprofit budgets due to reduced tax and grant revenue from gambling operations.
“The second-biggest city in Iowa is a big bully,” Patty Koller, executive director of the Washington County Riverboat Foundation, told lawmakers Tuesday during a Senate subcommittee hearing on the House bill.
The Riverboat Foundation serves as the nonprofit affiliate and gaming license holder for Riverside Casino & Golf Resort.
“Every few years our livelihood is threatened,” Koller said of the push to build a casino in Cedar Rapids. “It needs to stop. And only you, senators, can do it. Casinos in Iowa are not pure free-market capitalism enterprises. They are licensed, highly regulated and the cost of entry is very steep. … Iowans want the regulation. We want the quality and integrity of highly regulated casinos. What we don’t want is Cedar Rapids threatening our economy and our rural neighborhood every few years.”
Backers say the state’s second-largest city should be allowed to benefit from gaming, the same as other communities, and that growth in Iowa’s gaming industry and competition from neighboring states could make the proposed casino more relevant.
O’Donnell and representatives from Iowa State Building and Construction Trades Council, North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters, Master Builders of Iowa and affiliated local unions said the proposed casino would boost the local economy, create jobs, support community projects and enhance the quality of life by attracting more tourists and providing more entertainment options.
“Times are different today, I believe,” O’Donnell said. “ … The time is right. The data shows that and our city is a very different position, too. It’s my hope the commission sees this for the economic development opportunity that it is.”
An economic impact study commissioned by the casino developer projects a Cedar Rapids casino would generate $2.25 billion from construction in the first 10 years of operations. It’s expected to support 792 construction jobs and employ 365 workers once open. The study also projects the casino would generate more than $43.5 million in tax revenue, with state and local contributions at more than $34 million.
Casino developer Peninsula Pacific Entertainment and the Linn County Gaming Association also have committed to distributing 8 percent of net adjusted gross revenue to nonprofit organizations annually — more than twice the state-mandated minimum. Of that, 10 percent would be distributed to nonprofits in adjacent counties.
An influx of funding from a casino would help nonprofits meet needs and expand services in areas like foster care, homelessness, food insecurity and health care, according to the Linn County Gaming Association, the nonprofit affiliate and charitable arm that jointly applied for a Cedar Rapids casino license with P2E.
Lawmaker says, ‘We’ve got other things to work on’
The Iowa House last week voted 68-31 to pass House File 144 that would retroactively enact a five-year moratorium on issuing new casino licenses in the state from Jan. 1, 2025 through June 30, 2030.
The bill also proposed new criteria that the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission would use to consider future casinos, including whether and how much it would drain revenues from existing gambling facilities in Iowa.
The wording effectively would have prohibited state gambling regulators from granting a casino license in Linn County in the future.
While the bill included a retroactive clause — leaving open the possibility for lawmakers to overrule the commission should regulators approve a Cedar Rapids casino license — Rozenboom, speaking to reporters Tuesday after the committee, said it’s time to move on to other issues.
"At the end of the day we do have a regulatory process and commission that deals with this and that's not an unusual position for Senate Republicans to simply say: 'Well, we have a process in place. Let's just follow the process rather than micromanage them,'" Rozenboom told reporters. "… We're not going to keep getting bogged down on this issue. It's obviously taken a lot of the oxygen out of the room. We've got other things to work on. Let's work on those."
Rozenboom, though, left the door open to reconsidering the guidelines the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission must consider when granting new casino licenses.
“That’s a fair question, and in subsequent years we may deal with that,” he said.
Moratorium on new Iowa casinos fails; regulators to rule on CR proposal Thursday
A proposed five-year moratorium on new state-licensed casinos in Iowa will not be passed into law, a key legislator said Tuesday, clearing the way for state regulators to decide later this week on a proposal for a new casino in Cedar Rapids.
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