Stories

Amid widespread financial uncertainty, two Dubuque-area casinos are benefiting from a strategic marketing partnership that enables them to compete less against each other and more against other cities in the region.

Lyon County in northwest Iowa is the best prospect for a new casino, according to two studies of the state’s gambling market organized by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission.

Iowa’s gaming industry has its eyes on a New Jersey lawsuit that could open up sports betting to the Hawkeye State, according to Doug Burns at Iowa Political Alert.
Wes Ehrecke, president of the Iowa Gaming Association, which represents Iowa’s 17 state-regulated casinos, told Burns his organization is certainly interested in the case and could take [...]

A ban on smoking in casinos, an expansion electronic campaign finance filings and subpoena power for the Iowa Civil Rights Commission are among prefiled bills approved by their sponsors for release to the public.
Rep. Mark Smith, D-Marshalltown, is proposing a bill that would expand the statewide smoking ban passed last session and end the law’s [...]

Some Iowa legislators are considering allowing limited gambling in bars to help them offset losses due to the Iowa smoking ban and to deal with the grossly unfair advantage casinos have with their smoking exemption, according to a story in The Sioux City Journal:
A state lawmaker says a small group of legislators is quietly assembling [...]

Even though gaming floors are exempt from Iowa’s statewide somking ban, the new law still poses challenges for the state’s 17 licensed casinos, said officials during the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission meeting.

New laws governing smoking and jackpots at Iowa casinos will be discussed at this week’s Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission meeting.

Gamblers who are banned for life from Iowa casinos could soon hear the dinging of the slot machines again — without having to sneak around.

Gamblers can irrevocably ban themselves for life from Iowa casinos by joining the statewide self-exclusion program, which is mandated by Iowa law. But under the proposed legislation, SF 2062, gamblers would [...]

Gamblers who voluntarily ban themselves from Iowa casinos could face new penalties if they are caught re-entering a licensed casino.

Proposed legislation would update a 2004 Iowa law that mandated a statewide self-exclusion program allowing patrons to irrevocably ban themselves for life from the state’s 17 licensed casinos. The ban list contains the names of 2,450 [...]

COUNCIL BLUFFS — Republican presidential candidates who dismiss evolution should visit Iowa's casinos.
For evidence. On their side of the debate.
Ever notice how everyone at an Iowa casino is either 100 pounds overweight or 100 pounds underweight?
That’s just part of life at the Lakeside Casino & Resort in Osceola or the new Horseshoe in [...]