Walker’s Bluff Casino Resort opens
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CARTERVILLE — Gov. JB Pritzker joined hundreds of people from across southern Illinois on a rural estate just outside of Carterville on Friday, Aug. 25, to celebrate the opening of the state’s 14th casino.
The Walker’s Bluff Casino Resort is the fourth casino to open in recent years that was authorized by a 2019 gambling expansion law that was a centerpiece of Pritzker’s first term. It features 650 slot machines and table games, a hotel, restaurants, a full-service spa and 1,200-seat event center. It is expected to employ about 300 people.
“Hospitality, jobs, economic development — that is what today’s announcement represents,” Pritzker said. “When I proposed that we pass a casino gaming bill a few years ago, this is what I had envisioned.”
The 2019 law amending the Illinois Gambling Act authorized six new casinos, including the one in Carterville, four “racinos” — combination horse racetracks and casinos — online and retail sports betting and expanded video gambling.
Proceeds from the gambling expansion were earmarked, in part, to provide funding for Rebuild Illinois, the state’s multi-year capital improvement program to repair and build new roads, bridges and government buildings across the state. The transportation-related portions of the capital improvement program is also supported by increases in the motor fuel tax and licensing fees.
Each casino is required to contribute one-time fees within 30 days of opening to the Rebuild Illinois fund. For Walker’s Bluff Casino Resort, that amounts to $25.3 million, according to the Illinois Gaming Board. Pritzker said the state has already committed Rebuild Illinois funding to numerous projects throughout the southern Illinois region, such as for new buildings at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and John A. Logan College in Carterville.
The $147 million project in southern Illinois has been in the making for years, an effort spurred by Cynde Bunch and her late husband David, who opened Walker’s Bluff, an upscale restaurant and general store, in 2008 on land that had been in Cynde’s family for generations. Elite Casino Resorts LLC is the majority owner and operator of the casino and resort, although Cynde is a partial owner as well.
The state’s land-based casinos are already attracting visitors. Last month, just shy of 150,000 people visited the three casinos, representing 15.6% of all visitors to the state’s 13 casinos, according to data from the Illinois Gaming Board.
These casino visitors bring in millions of dollars to the state and to local governments each month. In July, casinos allocated $38.3 million for taxes on admissions and gambling — with $30.7 million set aside for the state and $7.6 million for local governments.
The state portion of this money is separate from Rebuild Illinois infrastructure spending and pays for costs at the gaming board, with any excesses being used for educational spending.
The 2019 gambling law represented the largest expansion of casino operations in Illinois in decades. It authorized the Illinois Gaming Board to issue up to 10 new casino permits, including for the four “racinos,” doubling the number of potential licensees. However, none of the planned racetrack-casino combos have come to fruition to date.
The recent expansion of gambling is the first major change to Illinois’ casino industry since 1990, when the Illinois legislature legalized riverboat gambling. It was only the second state to do so — behind Iowa — though numerous states along the Mississippi River followed suit. The first riverboat casino opened in Alton in 1991. Nine others later opened, spanning from Metropolis to the Chicago suburbs.
That original law only authorized riverboat casinos. For years, they were required to traverse the waterways during gambling sessions. A change in law in 1999 allowed the riverboats to remain docked and most of them eventually stopped setting sail.
