- The Queen of Terre Haute Casino construction is expected to be completed by December 2023.
- Queen of Terre Haute casino is owned by Churchill Downs Inc.
- The casino is being built on a 50-acre land off East Margaret Drive.
Vigo Country’s Queen of Terre Haute casino could be up and running by December 2023.
The project broke ground last June 21st and after encountering initial issues, including the need to add rock to the building site, a 50-acre parcel off East Margaret Drive, the construction phase has commenced.
Additionally, the redesign of the project put the construction of its hotel under the review of the Federal Aviation Administration for flight path hazards after the hotel’s original location was moved. That was solved after the owners decided to lower the height of the building from 150 feet to 141 feet and install aviation warning lights on the building.
Foundation work is expected to continue through this month and then the hotel and casino structures are to be erected between October through March 2023. Meanwhile, exterior enclosures are planned to be done from January to June 2023 while interior work will begin on March 2023 and is being targeted to be completed in December of the same year when the casino is expected to launch.
Indiana casinos are breaking industry records this year, with gaming taxes up by 18% from 2021 as noted during the Indiana Gaming Commission’s 2022 annual report. The opening of the Queen of Terre Haute casino is expected to further bolster that growth.
IGC Declares Lucy Luck Ineligible
“Gaming commission denies license renewal to local company Lucy Luck”
State halts casino progresshttps://t.co/05Md8KjCuV
— Alfonso Straffon 🇨🇷🇺🇸🇲🇽 (@astraffon) June 25, 2021
Vigo County voters approved in November 2019 a referendum that provided for the establishment of a casino. The following month, local businessman Greg Gibson’s Spectacle Entertainment partnered with Hard Rock for the only casino proposal received by the commission. Gibson later created Lucy Luck LLC after an issue with one of his partners.
But in June 2021, the IGC denied Lucy Luck the renewal of its casino license even before it could build one. The commission ruled that Lucy Luck did not establish a qualified team and its financing plan was incomplete despite its owners previously telling the committee that his company had commitments from five Indiana banks for financing once it receives its casino license.
Lucy Luck filed an appeal with the commission and the Indiana Office of Administrative Proceedings, seeking a stay on the commission’s order to deny its license renewal. The commission ended up rejecting the settlement offer and then proceeded to conduct another bidding process.
In September 2021, the Indiana Gaming Commission received a total of four applications for the Vigo casino project. The proposals were from Churchill Downs, Full House Resorts, Hard Rock Terre Haute, and Terre Haute Entertainment. Barely two months later, the IGC announced that it awarded the casino license to Churchill Downs Inc.
Queen of Terre Haute Casino
Churchill Downs Inc. is proposing a new casino in Indiana, Queen of Terre Haute, with 1,000 slots, 50 table games, luxury hotel and sportsbook pic.twitter.com/CS7Z1ncYSa
— Janet Patton (@janetpattonhl) September 22, 2021
Churchill Downs’ Queen of Terre Haute casino is a $190 million project which will build a $110 million gaming facility with 392,816 square feet of area. The casino portion of the facility is 56,400 square feet and features 1,000 slot machines, 50 table games, and a TwinSpires sportsbook. It will also have a 125-room luxury hotel attached to it.
A 500-seat entertainment space will be added to “ensure that the Special Events Room complements the new Terre Haute Convention Center. Once open, the casino and Special Events Room will be “powerful” enough to help Terre Haute attract events to its new downtown convention center.
The facility would have a capacity of 6,600 people while the connecting hotel at 900 guests while featuring standard, junior, and executive suites, plus a presidential suite. The complex would display Indiana art, including the iconic Coke bottle and a Larry Bird basketball for Indiana State University.
Owners project that the facility will serve more than 1.3 gaming patrons per year and an estimated 6.7 visitors during its first five years. In the same span, Churchill Downs says the casino will produce over $630 million in gross gaming revenues. The entire property will also create 500 permanent jobs, and of course boost tourist visits to the area, thus pumping up the economy.
