Four Winds Casino expanding gaming options
$5,000 Welcome Bonus
The Four Winds Casino in South Bend is expanding its gaming options as the casino has had its gaming license upgraded.
The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, who owns and operates the casino on tribal lands in South Bend, applied for a Class III gaming license with the state and federal government in 2019. In order to make that happen a compact had to be agreed to with the state of Indiana.
Governor Holcomb signed off on the compact in 2019 and the Department of Interior approved the Class III license not long after.
The new license allows the casino to offer Las Vegas-style gaming such as table gaming like craps, blackjack, and roulette as well as more slot machines. Before, with a Class II license options for table gaming were strictly limited.
“The compact is very important to us because now it allows us to compete at an even level with all the commercial casinos in the state of Indiana,” said Matt Wesaw, tribal council chairman with the Pokagon Band.
“It will increase our revenue, obviously,” he added. “It will allow us then to do more things for our tribal citizens. It’ll help us to continue to improve their quality of life.”
The biggest thing Wesaw likes about the new licensure is that it will be putting more money into the Pokagon Indiana Educational Fund. The fund will set aside a million dollars for any tribal citizen to get a post-secondary education fully paid for at a state-funded institution, whether it be at a two/four-year college, vocational, or trade school.
As part of the compact with Indiana, the casino will be sharing 8-percent of its revenue generated with the state. Under the previous license, the casino did not have to share revenues.
The casino is expanding gaming and its facility. Construction is already underway on a 23-story hotel set to be competed in the fall of next year.
