The Senate has begun working on a legislation to set up a new category of man-made stationary “gambling structures” to go side to side with the state's excursion gambling boats, moored barges and race track enclosures offering table games and slot machines.
Proponents say the change is considered necessary because the requisite for floating casinos to keep a nexus to water is creating costly situations where enterprises are investing large sums in piping systems, artificial lakes, water-filled bladders or other methods of compliance.
To comply with the requisite, the Riverside Casino & Golf Resort in Washington County created an artificial pond and built its gaming floor over it. The Diamond Jo Worth Casino near the Minnesota border was built over an artificial basin that can be as shallow as 6 inches deep.
Senate President Jack Kibbie, D-Emmetsburg, said the modifications to allow land-based casinos not associated with a pari-mutuel track were a “common-sense thing to do” for an industry that has been in Iowa for nearly two decades.
“There's no sense for an inland casino to have to put water underneath a gambling floor and to have to spend a bunch of money, if you're not going to move a boat around and it's an inland facility, then why require that you have to have water underneath it?” he said.
Senators are also looking at a separate bill that would end the requisite to vote every eight years to confirm legalized gambling, proposing as an alternative that an election would be held after a second affirmative referenda only if citizens petition for another vote.
The Senate has begun working on a legislation to set up a new category of man-made stationary “gambling structures” to go side to side with the state's excursion gambling boats, moored barges and race track enclosures offering table games and slot machines.