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Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Casino moratorium bill stalls in Iowa Senate committee
Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O'Donnell spoke against a proposed casino moratorium in a Senate subcommittee meeting Feb. 4. The measure ultimately failed to advance. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch) A proposed five-year casino moratorium hit a roadblock Tuesday in the Iowa Senate after sailing through the House. Sen. Ken Rozenboom, R-Oskaloosa, said Tuesday there is not sufficient support for the moratorium among Senate Republicans and he chose not to debate the bill at a State Government Committee meeting. House File 144, passed by the Iowa House last week, would set a five-year moratorium on new licenses for casinos in addition to setting new standards for the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission to consider when assessing future license applicants. The commission would be barred from issuing licenses for casinos that are projected to impact the adjusted gross receipts of an existing Iowa casino by more than 10%. The bill would also ban new applications from counties where a casino application was denied for eight years. While a Senate subcommittee advanced the measure, House File 144, at a Tuesday meeting, Rozenboom read a statement at the beginning of the State Government Committee stating his reasoning for not bringing the measure forward. 'I am no fan of gambling and my decision not to advance this legislation should not be considered in support of casino expansion,' Rozenboom said in the statement. 'According to my conversations, this bill did not have enough support from Senate Republicans to advance all the way through the Senate process. 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 told reporters after the meeting that the casino moratorium has been a 'difficult' issue, but that 'at the end of the day we do have a regulatory process and a commission that deals with this, and it's not an unusual position for Senate Republicans to simply say, 'well, we have a process in place, let's just follow the process.'' With no moratorium in place, the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission is expected to make a decision Thursday on granting a license for a Cedar Rapids casino. The commission will evaluate the Cedar Crossing Casino and Entertainment Center, the $275 million planned facility in Cedar Rapids which was proposed shortly after the previous moratorium expired June 30, 2024. Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O'Donnell told reporters she was 'really proud that the process has been able to play out,' and is looking forward to bringing the project to the commission for a decision. Though the IRGC denied Cedar Rapids casino licenses in 2014 and 2017, she said she was hopeful the commission would see the benefits the Cedar Crossing project would bring to both Cedar Rapids and to the state. 'Times are different today, I believe, than when we brought a project before the Racing and Gaming Commission,' O'Donnell said. 'The time is right, the data shows that, and our city is in a very different position too. And it's my hope the commission sees this for the economic development opportunity that it is.' At the subcommittee meeting earlier Tuesday, supporters of the moratorium urged lawmakers to pass the measure, saying it was necessary to prevent job and revenue losses at existing casinos — especially the nearby Riverside Casino and Isle Casino Hotel Waterloo. Studies had found that more than half of revenue generated by Cedar Crossing would come from existing revenue currently heading to other Iowa casinos, while also generating $60 million in new total statewide commercial gambling revenue by 2028. Patty Koller, executive director of the Washington County Riverboat Foundation, called Cedar Rapids and supporters of the casino 'bullies.' 'My rural community is being threatened every few years,' she said. 'Our livelihood is threatened. It needs to stop, and only you senators can do it.' O'Donnell disputed the term 'bully' at the subcommittee hearing, saying other casinos and areas were keeping Cedar Rapids from having a fair bid at a casino license. She also said the impact of a Cedar Rapids casino on other state casinos should be viewed in the context of previous concerns about Wild Rose Casino & Hotel Jefferson's potential cannibalization of revenue at Prairie Meadows and other central Iowa casinos. 'Will it compete with nearby casinos?' O'Donnell said. 'Absolutely, it will. And competition makes everybody better, just as we saw (with) doom and gloom scenarios around Wild Rose — 'We're going to take all from the competing casinos' — and Prairie Meadows, lo and behold, saw a revenue burst just a few years later. The idea of Cedar Crossing has already pushed, as we hear, other casinos to be better and do better. Imagine what would happen if these casinos never had to worry about competition.' Though the Senate State Government Committee won't consider the bill, that does not mean it's dead and Thursday's commission action may not be the final word. In an Iowa Press taping Friday, Senate President Amy Sinclair said the 'pressure is less' in the Senate to pass a measure before Racing and Gaming Commission meeting because of the retroactive start date of Jan. 1, 2025 included in the bill. However, Rozenboom told reporters he does not anticipate discussions on a moratorium making a reappearance later in the 2025 session. 'A moratorium — I don't see a path forward for that approach,' Rozenboom. 'Should we consider or reconsider, 'what are those guidelines that the commission needs to consider?' That's a fair question, and in subsequent years, perhaps we'll deal with that. But no, not a moratorium — I don't see any further discussion on that in the foreseeable future.' Regardless of any future movement by the Legislature, the IRGC still plans to meet Thursday. Tina Eick, the IRGC administrator, said 'no changes have been made or are planned to the agenda' outside of a room change. 'The Commission is looking forward to completing this lengthy process,' Eick said in a statement. 'Considering a new casino application is just one small portion of the work the Commission performs. The Commission will also be handling other work as a part of its upcoming meeting including approving contracts and determining administrative fines.'
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Iowa House sends proposed casino moratorium to Senate
Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, spoke on the Iowa House floor Jan. 30, 2025, in support of a bill implementing a moratorium on new casinos in Iowa. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch) With a looming deadline of Feb. 6, the Iowa House approved a bill Thursday that would set a five-year moratorium on new casinos in Iowa. The House passed House File 144 on a 68-31 vote Thursday, a bill establishing a moratorium on new casinos in the state through June 30, 2030. The legislation was quickly moved through the subcommittee and committee process earlier this week as lawmakers supporting the measure seek to prevent the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission (IRGC) from potentially issuing a license to the Cedar Crossing Casino and Entertainment Center, a proposed $275 million facility in Cedar Rapids, at its meeting scheduled for Feb. 6. Studies commissioned by the IRGC found more than half of estimated revenue from Cedar Crossing would come out of revenue currently headed to existing Iowa casinos. However, the Cedar Rapids proposal was estimated to generate a new $60 million in total statewide commercial gambling revenue by 2028. Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, who proposed the legislation, said that the measure was necessary because of the impact on existing casinos in Iowa. 'I think the studies show significant cannibalism is very real,' Kaufmann said. 'And I do believe we are in the correct purview to tell the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission how they should make major decisions. We created them, we change the rules on a nearly yearly basis. A ruling of this significance, I believe should have us electeds' involvement.' Rep. Sami Scheetz, D-Cedar Rapids, said the Iowa Legislature should not impose a moratorium and instead allow the IRGC to 'do its job' and evaluate the Cedar Rapids proposal. He noted the commission previously denied Cedar Rapids casino licenses in 2014 and 2017. He said the IRGC considers factors like market saturation and cannibalization when making its decision, while also looking at a casino proposal's impact on the state's overall gaming revenue when making a decision. The proposal also includes new rules for casino license applications after the moratorium, prohibiting the commission from issuing licenses to new facilities that are projected to impact the adjusted gross receipts of an existing licensed casino by more than 10%, or negatively impact the annual distributions of a qualified sponsoring organization. The legislation also proposes a ban on applications from counties where the IRGC has declined to issue a license within the past eight years. Scheetz said while gaming is a regulated industry, the Legislature is overstepping its bounds by putting 'its thumb on the scale' in favor of existing casino licensees. 'In no other industry in the state of Iowa, do we have (those) kind of anti-competitive rules,' Scheetz said. '… In no other industry in the state of Iowa are you told, 'you cannot enter if you're going to hurt the people that are already there.' That goes against the basic principles of free markets and competition, which is something that I know so many people in this room believe in.' Kaufmann said 'the free market in any capacity does not exist in the Iowa gambling world.' The measure will quickly become available for debate in the Senate, as lawmakers in the chamber also moved to advance casino moratorium legislation Thursday. A companion bill, Senate Study Bill 1069, was approved by a subcommittee and in the Senate Local Government Committee Thursday despite opposition from Cedar Rapids and Linn County officials, as well as advocates with trade organizations. Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O'Donnell asked lawmakers at the Thursday subcommittee meeting to 'play fair and let the process work.' She also said concerns about competition created by the proposed Cedar Rapids casino are not well-founded — and more scrutiny should be put on casino owners like Dan Kehl, CEO of Elite Casino Resorts, who is also building properties in Nebraska and Illinois. 'We've heard the argument before a new casino is going to provide cannibalization and take away revenue from others, except history, frankly, tells us that as simply not true,' O'Donnell said. 'Communities with competing interests within those cities are not just surviving, but they're actually thriving. And let's be honest, when Dan Kehl opened up a casino just across the Nebraska border. I don't recall him asking this body or anyone else whether or not it was okay to compete with us. That's what a free market economy is about. So why are we here today being asked to seek permission to merely compete in our own state?' Matt Hinch, representing Elite Casino Resorts, said the business' two non-Iowa casinos are not near the Iowa border or at risk of cannibalizing the Iowa gaming market. However, he said, a Cedar Rapids casino would pose a significant risk of infringing on existing Iowa casinos' revenue, potentially impacting the livelihood of employees and the local communities' economies. 'We have 19 commercial casinos and four tribal casinos in the state of Iowa — the market is absolutely saturated,' Hinch said. 'Many of these casinos are family businesses that employ lots of Iowans, and having a casino in Cedar Rapids will have a substantial negative impact on those jobs.' The bill was approved unanimously in the subcommittee meeting, and passed through the Senate Local Government Committee. Sen. Zach Wahls, D-Coralville, spoke against the measure, saying that the Legislature was interfering with the IRGC's assigned role and if passed, 'we should have a conversation about ending the Racing and Gaming Commission.' But Sen. Scott Webster, R-Bettendorf, argued lawmakers are charged with setting 'guidelines and guardrails' for the commission — and this bill is part of that duty. He also pushed back against arguments that the moratorium was specifically targeting the Cedar Rapids casino, saying the measure was meant to stop major expansions of the casino industry in Iowa. 'If we think that one casino is the question on this bill, I think we are definitely wrong. This is about casinos throughout the state of Iowa. This is about setting guardrails and setting policy for how that casino expansion happens in our state, before it just rapidly takes off at a pace out of anybody's control completely.' If approved by the Senate, the bill will head to Gov. Kim Reynolds' desk for a final decision. Though the governor has not made a statement on whether she would support a moratorium, Kaufmann told reporters after introducing the legislation he had 'a personal high level of confidence that the governor would consider signing it if we get it done.'
