Based in Waterloo, Iowa, the Wild Rose Casino has never been a real riverboat, as it has always been moored in one spot, and never has taken a trip down the Mississippi River.
State regulators decided this week to change the law, and drop the pretense that the casino is a "riverboat," and is now simply calling it what it is, a casino.
Last year, the Wild Rose opened under a section of Iowa’s riverboat gambling law that allowed casinos to be classified as “moored barges."
This week, the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, the facility will be described as a “gambling structure” that will be permanently dry-docked. Built at a cost of $38 million, the casino extends over a portion of a 12.5-acre pond that was excavated on the site.
“This is just another version of draining the swamp,” joked Commissioner Gerald Bair of Ankeny.
According to Tom Timmons, vice president of operations for Wild Rose Entertainment, the pond which surrounds the boat will not be totally drained, but the water will be drawn down, slowly, so it no longer pools under the casino. Presently, the water is only 2.5 to 3 feet deep beneath the casino, although the pond is about 25 to 30 feet deep at its deepest point, experts said.
Reconfigured Pond
The pond will be redesigned, he added, and longer-term plans call for construction of an outdoor amphitheater, near the casino. The Wild Rose had 55,727 admissions in September while generating gross casino revenue of $2.3 million, state records reports.
According to Jack Ketterer, the racing and gaming commission’s administrator, the Wild Rose is the first Iowa casino to ask to be "excluded" from the water requirement. "Other casinos in that category will likely switch as their gambling licenses come up for renewal," he said.
The commission met this week at the Isle Hotel and Casino in Waterloo, which opened in June and is also built over water.
Experts note that Wild Rose Entertainment also operates the Mississippi Belle II riverboat casino in Clinton, where it will be making its final cruise on the Mississippi River this week. The boat has been the only remaining Iowa gambling vessel that has still offered river cruises, and it will be replaced next year by a new Wild Rose land-based casino on the west edge of Clinton, Iowa.
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