Chair cites study on impact as reason
The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission on Thursday voted 4-1 against a license for Cedar Rapids Development Inc and a proposed Cedar Crossing Casino in downtown Cedar Rapids. The Cedar Rapids application is one of two under consideration; the other is for a Wild Rose Casino in Jefferson.
The vote was taken at the commission’s regular meeting in Council Bluffs.
Commission chair Jeff Lamberti cast the last vote. He said that the Cedar Crossing application “passed with flying colors” in terms of the impact, the support of the community, and the jobs. “We simply don’t have anything to complain about with respect to what was submitted to us. Quite frankly, I don’t think there’s anything else the applicants could have done to improve the quality of the proposal,” Lamberti said.
Lamberti continued that the commission does not have the “luxury” of looking at the application in isolation. “We have to be mindful of what’s happened in the past and where we are in respect to the current gaming environment.”
He referenced a pair of studies paid for by the IRCG that looked at the impact new casinos in Linn and Greene counties would have on existing casinos. Those studies named casinos that would lose business with the addition of new gaming facilities. In the case of the Cedar Crossing Casino, nearby Riverside Casino would see the most impact. “I personally believe that the studies that were provided to us were reliable and provide us with the information, at least in part, that we need in reaching our decision… The impact for me on existing facilities is simply too large and presents the risk of destabilizing the gaming market in Iowa,” Lamberti said.
Granting a new license would be a departure from what Lamberti called a “balanced” approach by the IRGC in the past when looking at license applications. “I think it would be a significant precedent in how we look at licenses and new licenses and I’m simply not willing to do that at this time,” he said.
He said the commission has been consistent in encouraging investments in existing facilities and not allowing new licenses that would have a significant impact or impairment on those facilities. “Certainly if the legislature or the governor would like to adopt a different policy in respect to new licenses…we operate within the environment of Iowa law….. It would be up to them to give us a new policy if they so choose.”
“I echo what’s been said by others about the community support, the hard work that’s gone into this. This is not a decision that any of us is too excited about…but I am confident that the commission as a whole is making a decision we believe is in the best interest of the state of Iowa.”
Commission member Dolores Mertz was the only one to vote in favor of granting the license. She said that industry, including Iowa’s gaming industry, should be market driven. “As a farmer, if I really believe that in agriculture, I’d be really remiss not to do that in gaming,” she said.
The Racing and Gaming Commission will next make a decision on an application from Grow Greene County Gaming Corp and Wild Rose Entertainment for a license for a casino in Jefferson. A presentation was made to the commission in March, and a site visit is planned in Jefferson for May 29.
Tom Timmons, chief operating officer of Wild Rose, during a GreeneCountyNewsOnline interview last month, declined to predict whether the commission would feel obliged to make the same decision on both pending license applications. “I do know that if they were going to do them together in their own minds, whether they had it in mind that they need to do both or they don’t do either one, why wouldn’t they put us together from the beginning? It seems to me they’re handling each one separately,” Timmons said. “I don’t think in their minds they’re looking at these as being tied at the hip.”
