March Madness is here, along with property taxes! What does one have to do with the other? Well, if you have been following, Wild Rose Casino felt like they were paying too much in property taxes – At a valuation of $20.7 million in FY 2023, rising to $23.4 million in FY 2024, who could blame them? So, our Greene County Attorney took on Wild Rose Casino and negotiated a settlement that lowered the value to $18.1 million for FY 2023 and 2023. Which, all things considered, seems like a fair settlement – neither side got exactly what they wanted, and they met in the middle. All’s well that ends well, sort of thing. The Greene County Supervisors’ budget is short about $100,000 and they have to deal with a budget shortfall. The joys of being an elected official having to deal with a budget never end!
My beef is with the level of profits that are currently being made via online gambling, and the taxes that these companies (like Wild Rose Casino) pay.
Iowa has the LOWEST tax rate of sports gambling in the nation (along with Nevada) at 6.75%. My visiting cousin from Tennessee bragged about how much his home state of Tennessee paid for his son’s college in-state tuition – Tennessee does this by taxing Sports Gambling at the rate of 19.7%. Many states tax at that 15-20% rate – New Hampshire and Rhode Island are at 51%.
So, because Wild Rose Casinos are affiliated with DraftKings, the #1 Sportsbook, they are doing VERY well at making money via online Sports Wagering. How well, you might ask? Prairie Meadows made a profit of $9.3 million in FY 2024 via online gambling. Wild Rose Casino Jefferson made over THREE times that – $30.7 MILLION in Fiscal Year 2024. Now, that is profit ($418 million handle – $387 million payouts = about $31 million profit). Is Wild Rose a great neighbor? It has added jobs to the community, and I recently attended an event at a nice venue and decent food. It has some nice concerts and events. It paid over $2 million in state tax (or, saved over $4 million by being in Iowa, rather than Tennessee!).
Just kinda sticks in my craw that their property taxes are going down when it feels like mine are going up. Wild Rose Casinos (including Emmetsburg and Clinton) made over $78 million in profit in online gambling in FY 2024. Those 3 casinos account for 37% of Iowa’s $212 million profit via Online Sports wagering in FY 2024.
With 4 months left in the FY 2025, Wild Rose Jefferson is $22.1 million ahead – I suspect they will do pretty good in March, no matter who wins the tournament. Why Iowa is taxing online sports wagering at 6.75%, the same rate at Nevada, is one for the ages. The Casino Industry got their $’s worth out of their Iowa statehouse lobbyists, that is for sure. All these statistics (and more) are available from the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission website.
David Weaver, Rippey
