Before the end of the second week of March, the Illinois Gaming Board will be hearing business proposals from various casino developers in Illinois. On the specific day of the meeting which will be a Thursday, the contest will be for a casino license. The arrangements for the board hearing were planned by the Mayor of Danville, Rickey Williams Jr., towards the end of February. A spokesperson from the gaming board came out at the start of March to announce that the board was indeed ready for the presentations.
Policy director of the board, Joe Miller revealed that the panel will be considering the suitability of the Danville Development LLC. This is the organization that will be charged with coming up with the framework that will govern the casino project in Danville. According to Miller, the agenda of the meeting which will be held between the board and various casino developers will be accessible from the board’s website. Those who are interested in following the action of the preliminary hearing will be able to view the lineup 48 hours before it takes place.
Once the suitability of the casino project is determined, the next step is to flag off the construction work which would begin immediately. Mayor Williams has announced that gaming licenses will not be issued yet but this exercise has been reserved for later. While this announcement is going to upset some operators who are keen on launching gambling operations in Illinois, it is just a message to hold on. The mayor is probably working with his administration to put together regulatory bodies to oversee the establishment of a functioning economy.
Based on the record influx of gaming operators into states such as New Jersey, it is expected that various providers will try to be the early entries. Brands that already have a good reputation and market performance are expected to show interest in the near future. It is however going to take time since this is new for Illinois state officials and rushing them will feel doubtful. Once the approvals start being dished out, the stage will be set for the city of Danville to compete against the best performing gambling locations in the US.
With this arrangement, the gambling community of Danville would be looking at groundbreaking progress within 45 to 60 days. Williams hopes that the suitability exercise will bear the results that the state officials of the gaming board of Illinois will bear results hoped for. If that happens, there will be a meeting slotted before the end of April. By the first quarter of 2023, the county officials are certain that at least one casino will have established operations.
While the mayor’s projections are promising and appear ambitious, they are way behind the schedule of the Danville casino developers. The developers had anticipated the setting up of a functional project by this present moment. It appears that the Illinois Gaming Board is slow in its functions and the industry must in the future allow more time for preparation.
It already a full year since the initial deliberations was made and yet the application process has not been finalized. The first application for a developer was presented in 2019 but it was later dismissed in 2020 after the development team chose to pull out of the process.
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Golden Nuggets to Get the First Operator Privilege
While the mayor and his team cannot control the timelines as it has been established, they are aware of the casino brand that will debut in Danville. The first Danville casino will be built in the Eastgate Industrial Park of Danville. Golden Nugget has already been earmarked as the operating brand and will at setup provide fourteen table games and 500 slot machines at installation. In addition to furnishing the gaming floor, GNOG will also set up two restaurants and an online gaming platform.
One of the restaurants that Golden Nuggets is going to establish in its Danville casino is a saltgrass Steak House. The Golden Nugget and Saltgrass Steak House brands are both under the management of Fertitta Entertainment. The Illinois gambling industry is well aware that the force behind the entertainment group is Tillman Fertitta, a Houston billionaire. Managing the new casino will be the responsibility of Wilmorite Management in collaboration with Golden Nugget.
The ability of Wilmorite and Golden Nuggets to run the new casino operation is pegged on past performance. For Wilmore, running casinos spread across three different states stamps its authority as a betting operator manager. Golden Nugget on the other hand, is not just a manager but also a proprietor that is deeply involved in daily casino operations. Golden Nugget currently runs a network of five casinos in four US states.
Based on the plans that have been drafted for the casino project in Danville, it appears that the size of the project will be smaller than what had been earlier projected. The team that had made an application for suitability had in 2019 submitted plans for a much larger casino. Even then, the application had been jointly made by multiple companies, one of which was Haven Gaming LLC.
According to the current plans, Golden Nugget and Wilmorite propose starting on a small scale then expanding based on performance and demand. It might therefore not be long before the new casino is commissioned for expansion after a short period of operating. The initial expansion will cater to growing amenities and facilities but later development should be focused on upgrading the facility. In the future plans to upgrade, the casino should be concerned with increasing gaming positions and setting up accommodation and conference facilities.
Final Thoughts
Gambling in the United States has become a major income earner since it was legalized by the Supreme Court. Even though the rush is on for licensing in various jurisdictions, authorities are careful not to entrust the industry to questionable characters.
