WATCH NOW: Terre Haute casino project facing new legal challenge
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The state's gaming authority has resolved one legal dispute holding up the construction of a Terre Haute casino, but a separate lawsuit filed Friday challenging the selection of the new casino's operator may lead to additional delays.
The Indiana Gaming Commission (IGC) agreed to a settlement Tuesday with Lucy Luck Gaming that ends the company's administrative appeal of the IGC's June 24 decision not to renew Lucy Luck's Terre Haute casino license after the company made no visible progress toward constructing a west-central Indiana casino in more than 13 months.
According to the agreement, the IGC will return the $5 million casino license fee paid by Lucy Luck, provided Lucy Luck permanently surrenders the Terre Haute license and drops all pending actions against the commission by Friday.
With that resolved, the commission officially awarded the Terre Haute casino license, pending payment of a $5 million license fee, to the Churchill Downs affiliate that last month prevailed in a four-way competition for the reissued license.
Churchill plans to construct a $239.2 million, 392,000-square foot Terre Haute casino featuring 1,000 slot machines, 50 table games, a 125-room luxury hotel, a TwinSpires sports book, a steak house, and a rooftop bar, among other amenities.
The Queen of Terre Haute casino is slated to be located near the Illinois state line on 20.9 acres of undeveloped land on the southwest side of the city, just south of Interstate 70 and east of U.S. 41, and between the Wabash River and the Haute City Center mall.
But maybe not any time soon.
Full House Resorts Inc., whose "American Place" casino concept came in second for the Terre Haute license, has asked both a Marion County judge and a state administrative law judge to halt the license transfer to Churchill.
It claims the IGC violated the state's Open Door Law by recessing for an executive session during the license selection hearing. Full House also argues the IGC failed to appreciate having the Churchill casino site adjacent to a sewage treatment plant is substandard compared to the proposed Full House site just off Interstate 70.
"The nature of a sewage treatment plant in such close proximity to a public entertainment venue is counterintuitive to any prudent, rational individual," Full House said its lawsuit.
"Full House's destination complex was designed to essentially be a billboard to the millions of cars that drive by its site."
Since losing the Terre Haute license competition, Full House has tentatively secured the gaming license for a new casino in Waukegan, Illinois. Full House also operates the Rising Star Casino on the Ohio River in Rising Sun, Indiana.
Several IGC members took issue with Full House — as an Indiana casino licensee — accusing the IGC of operating in bad faith and seeking to hold up the long-sought Terre Haute casino project that's expected to create more than 400 jobs.
In particular, IGC Chairman Michael McMains, who initially favored Full House over Churchill in the Terre Haute selection process, said he now believes he "may have made a mistake" with that vote.
"Important criteria that we consider when granting gaming licenses to licensees in the state of Indiana, based on Indiana law, is their character, their integrity, their reputation, their behavior," McMains said.
"And frankly, this action of filing these complaints can only be viewed by me as sour grapes. I think it's vindictive, it's malicious, I think it's frivolous. I'm embarrassed for Full House for having done this....You will not prevail."
Terre Haute was assigned a state gaming license by the 2019 General Assembly as part of a plan to consolidate Gary's two gaming licenses into one, and to allow the Gary casino to relocate from Lake Michigan to a land-based site adjacent to Interstate 80/94 at Burr Street.
The $300 million Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana opened in Gary on May 14. It was the highest grossing casino in Indiana for October and November, topping the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond.
