A casino in the city of South Bend “The Four Winds Casino” has requested to the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians for allowing expanded gambling. The South Bend Casino wants to add more table games and expand its gambling option.
The casino was opened in January 2018 and had 1800 gaming machines and a poker room without any table games. The area of the Four Wind Casino is 175,000 square feet for gaming facility which is located on 166 acres of tribal trust land.
The request for the expansion from the Pokagon Band was sent on August 12, to the state governor. The governor, Eric Holcomb had appointed Sara Gonso Trait who is the executive director of the Indiana Gaming Commission to lead the yet-to-be assembled negotiating committee for the state.
The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians which is based on the Dowagiac, Michigan also has three more Michigan casinos along with Four Winds South Bend Casino.
When asked by the press Traits said:
“We’re still early in the process and that’s the most I can tell you at this point.”
The casino lacks agreement with the state government; therefore, it is unable to offer Class III table games such as blackjack, roulette, and craps along with table games and sports betting. The contract with the South Bend state will allow Pokagon Band to offer sports gambling which has become legal last month.
The announcement about the “expansion of the casino” will be done at the casino property in 3000 Prairie Ave.
The application was sent to U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs in the year 2012 for the establishment of the Four Wind Casino in Indian land. The application included plans for 18-story and 500-rooms hotel. But in the month of the December 2016 when casino’s construction was about to start Pokagon’s said that the hotel and other amenities such as night club, the conference center will be built after casino earns strong enough.
There was no announcement of the amenities to be built in the current expansion. In the press conference event at 10:30 AM on Monday, Matthew Wesaw, tribal council chairman and chairman of the Pokagon Gaming Authority, and Frank Freedman, chief operating officer of Four Winds Casinos, according to a media alert from the band’s Chicago-based public relations firm, Dresner Corporate Services attended it.
The band is thinking to build a hotel for the casino, but no further details were shared as per Mark Bode, spokesman for Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Since January 2018, South Bend casino has operated under a revenue-sharing agreement with the city of South Bend. According to the agreement the casino has to pay 2% of the revenue or at least $1.2 million, whichever is greater.
