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Even before state regulators lifted the ban on new casinos in September 2004, Dan Kehl was looking in the Iowa City area for a place to put one.
The first idea was for a location in Johnson County, but polling information clearly showed that voters wouldn't support it. So Kehl, chief executive officer of the Riverside Casino & Golf Resort, looked to locales in Washington and Iowa counties to gauge interest.
"A lot of folks say you can't (do) a destination resort in Iowa. We've done a lot of focus groups -- they just couldn't see it. But then when people see what we're doing here, they start to understand. This is so much more than just about gaming," Kehl said.
Now, a little more than two years after the moratorium and following 13 months of construction, Kehl and others are betting they will hit the jackpot in Riverside with the opening Thursday of a Las Vegas-style casino 14 miles south of Iowa City.
"I really think it's going to be good for the community," 51-year Riverside resident Marvin Sammons said. "I think it'll bring some life."
The more than 350,000-square-foot facility will have 1,181 slot machines, 30 table games and a 14-table poker room. Officials said they estimate 1.6 million people a year will visit the casino and resort. The $140 million complex includes a 201-room hotel, four restaurants, an event center and an 18-hole golf course designed by Rees Jones that is set to open in June 2007.
During opening day events, which will stretch through the Labor Day weekend, there will be music, pool parties and a private showing for more than 2,000 dignitaries and investors. Iowa-born actor Tom Arnold will perform on the Show Lounge stage at 5 p.m. Saturday as well as roam around greeting guests during the day, general manager Joe Massa said. The performance is free to the public. Two weeks later, at 4 p.m. Sept. 16, "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno is scheduled to take the stage at the resort's Event Center, he said.
The risk of the vote
Arranging the high-profile entertainment was only one step in the long road to opening the Riverside Casino & Golf Resort.
"There were so many different hurdles along the way that had to be passed," said Kehl, whose father, Robert Kehl, was one of three developers granted a license when the state became the first in the nation to launch riverboat gambling in April 1991.
"A lot of people have raised eyebrows and said, 'I don't know. It's just never going to happen. Why would it ever happen here?' We just said we've got to make it happen. Take one hurdle down at a time. So now that we're close to the end, I think people are getting it," Kehl said.
The biggest hurdle was persuading voters in Washington County to approve the project in a special election Aug. 31, 2004 -- one of seven such referendums on the ballot that year around the state.
"It was a big risk and a big gamble," Kehl said. "All the way up to the election, we felt that it could go either way."
Three weeks before the election, polling information indicated that the referendum would fail, he said.
"We had to speak with facts because we were always tested, and the people who were against us threw out a lot of speculation," Kehl said.
People who opposed the project formed a group called CARE, or Communities Against Riverboat Expansion. Organizers started their campaign six weeks before the pivotal vote.
"We had to move fast," said Jim Hussey, a CARE member and Kalona resident.
Every day during that six-week span, Washington County residents were bombarded with fliers in the mail and full-page advertisements in local newspapers, Hussey said.
"You couldn't avoid the paid media on their behalf," he said.
Around Washington County, green signs worked to persuade people to vote in favor of the gambling referendum. To battle back, CARE printed and distributed 1,000 blue signs.
Casino backers reported to the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission in May 2005 that they spent $469,000 to persuade the approximately 21,000 Washington County residents. That's more than $22 a person.
CARE, meanwhile, spent about $9,000, or 43 cents per resident.
On the day of the vote, 53 percent of eligible voters went to the polls. When the polls closed, the proposal squeaked by with a margin of 52.2 percent -- the closest of any of the 15 county referendum votes that took place in 2003 and 2004.
"I was disappointed," Hussey said. "I think we gave the best fight we could with the time and the resources we had."
But the county vote was just one hurdle. There were still many tense months to go.
Joining the larger pool
The next hurdle involved receiving approval -- and with it, a gambling license -- from state regulators. People on both sides made their way to Johnston in central Iowa for the crucial vote May 11, 2005.
Just three weeks earlier, a Massachusetts consulting firm presented a market study to members of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission. The firm, Cummings Associates, projected the Riverside project would be the second-highest grossing venture of the 10 the commission would vote on.
Hussey said the report served as a virtual death knell for CARE and its effort to have the commission deny the license request.
"This will maximize revenue for the state, and we are going to vote for it -- period," Hussey said about the commission's decision. "They couldn't have been more clear."
When the vote was taken, four of the five commissioners approved the license for the Riverside Casino & Golf Resort, with the sole nay vote coming from Michael Mahaffey, who declined all 10 applications before the commission that day.
Finding a following
As the walls of the casino have gone up, a growing number of people appear to be getting behind the project.
"I think it'll be good," said Jaci Salazar, owner and operator of Exhale Tanning Salon & Hair Studio, which opened on First Street in Riverside in May.
"The only reason we opened it was because the casino was coming to town," she said.
Salazar said she is not concerned about the resort's spa taking away business.
"I don't believe they'll have tanning," she said.
Also, she expects a haircut there to cost three times as much as one done at Exhale by Riverside resident Teri Fisher.
Another Riverside resident, Lance Carolan, also said he expects the casino to be good for Riverside because it will provide the city with money that could help get the downtown going, he said.
In an agreement between the city and the casino, Riverside will receive $1.7 million a year that will go into the general fund, city clerk Tina Thomas said. The money will come to the city every year as long as the casino keeps its gaming license. The operating license is subject to renewal every year, and the county must hold another gambling referendum in 2012.
The nonprofit organization that holds the gaming license, Washington County Riverboat Foundation Inc., also will receive about $3.3 million of casino revenues. According to state law, more than $834,000 will be distributed to the nine incorporated towns in the county on a per capita basis. The rest of the money, about $2.5 million, will go to other nonprofit and charitable groups in the county that apply for funding.
The first round of nonprofit applications started last month. The Washington County Riverboat Foundation Inc. will look at all the applications and determine which ones meet the grant guidelines and criteria, foundation president Tim Putney said. There is no maximum or minimum number of nonprofits that will receive funding, and each will receive an individually determined amount.
For this period, nonprofit letters of intent are due Friday. The two-page application is due Oct. 1. Awards will be given Dec. 15. The same process will occur every six months.
The safety concern
Bringing an estimated 1.6 million visitors to the Riverside area will add a unique strain to the area, because it is the only casino-holding city in the state without its own police department.
Washington County Sheriff Jerry Dunbar said his main concern is traffic traveling to and from the casino on Highways 22 and 218.
"Highway (22) just wasn't designed for that many people," he said.
The Washington County Sheriff's Department is based in Washington, about 24 miles southwest of Riverside. The department has 16 sworn deputies -- Dunbar, two civil deputies, 10 patrol deputies and three sergeants -- to cover more than 550 square miles.
This means during the day shift, there are only one to two deputies to patrol the entire county. In the evening, the number is bumped up to two or three.
Even with the recently hired 16th deputy in place to enforce traffic on Highways 218 and 22, "there's still going to be times that we just have one deputy on," Dunbar said.
"I just can't help but believe we'll have more calls" when the casino opens, especially for alcohol, domestics and bad checks, he said. "If the numbers go up, it came from somewhere."
Also, fire response may be a concern because the Riverside Community Volunteer Fire Department is made up of volunteers, many of whom work out of town during the day.
"Certainly, those are issues we're going to have to look into and consider," Riverside Mayor Bill Poch said about the sheriff and fire services.
Poch said the city council has begun to have early stage discussions involving options for sheriff's patrols and possibly adding deputy staff on a part-time basis.
"I would rather move slowly and methodically ... make sure that the decisions we make are the correct ones," he said.
Will the bet pay off?
The casino is expected to earn $83 million in gaming revenue its first year as well as an additional $10 million from other venues, such as the golf course and event center.
"That's the stuff that keeps me up at night," Kehl said. "(But) I feel pretty good about our projections."
The casino and resort will be staffed by about 900 to 950 full- and part-time employees, about 45 percent of whom are from Washington County, he said. Another 35 percent are from Johnson County.
"It'll definitely be the largest private employer" in Washington County, said Bob Schutt, a labor market research economist with Iowa Workforce Development. The next-largest private employers have fewer than 500 employees.
However, not all who visited the casino job fairs were impressed with the positions available.
Trudy Buster, who grew up in the Washington County town of Ainsworth but now lives in North Liberty, said both her sisters went to one of the job fairs but "neither one of the them did accept jobs because of the pay."
Entry-level positions were about $8 an hour, she said.
"Eight dollars an hour isn't enough to take care of a family," Buster said.
Riverside Casino & Golf Resort employees, however, said they are excited to be part of a project that is just beginning.
"It's something different. I've worked at an office most of my career," said Marilyn Tomas of Iowa City, who was learning to be a dealer at the casino's dealer school in June. "I think that it's cool starting something from the ground up."
Others noted the weeks of training together, helping the casino and resort staff to bond.
"The people are great to work with," said Joan Brendel, a security shift manager who is coming to Riverside after starting in the casino business about a year ago. "We're kind of like our own little community, our own little family out there."
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