Companies vie for West Baden casino rights

By a 2 to 1 margin, Orange County residents voted Nov. 18 to bring a riverboat casino to the waterway between hotels in French Lick and West Baden Springs. \nWithin a year, the Indiana Gaming Commission plans to choose a riverboat casino operator that is financially stable, experienced and has a clean criminal history. The operator must impress a seven-member committee of county residents and historic preservationists.\n"I want to do this as quickly as possible," said Donald Vowels, chairman of the commission. "The people have chosen it, and they deserve our quick attention."\nLarry Bird, Donald Trump and three other applicants are competing for the permit.\n"Over 1,000 manufacturing jobs were lost county-wide over the past four years. The casino will bring in 2,000," Alan Barnett, executive secretary of the chamber of commerce said in a previous IDS interview.\nAlso vying for a docking permit is Park Place Entertainment, owned by Donald Trump. It is the world's largest casino operator, and within the past year, its 29 casinos have taken in $4.6 million in revenue. Another contender, Jacobs Entertainment, operates casinos in Colorado and Nevada.\nBird's group, Orange County Development, is lead by former Indiana State Police Sgt. Craig Adolph. \n"We hope to be established in the community for a long time," Adolph said. "Will this convince the Gaming Commission we're sincere in what we say we're going to do? I hope so."\nBonnie Archer, co-owner of King's Florist, said she doesn't necessarily expect an increase in floral deliveries, but wants the casino to improve the local economy.\n"Right now, people have to go out of town for jobs," said Archer. "There's nothing here. We're living in poverty. But now, people are expecting things."\nJohn Doty, owner of the French Lick Winery, expects to see a rise in tourist traffic.\n"The area is dying," said Doty. "We need tourist traffic. We have no jobs, and the casino will help the economy."\nHowever, opponents said the stakes are too high to gamble with the future of Orange County.\nThe Orange County Coalition Against Legalized Gambling said it expects to see a rise in crime and drug-dealing because of the incoming casino. The leader, Robert Hoyt, blamed the referendum loss on misinformation and the "massive amounts of money" spent on the campaign by prospective casino operators.\n"We did the best we could," Hoyt said. "All of the promises made about money and jobs, they're not going to be able to keep. It will be very interesting when the truth starts to come out about what the people of Orange County are going to get from the riverboat."\n-- Contact staff writer Jessica Levco at jlevco@indiana.edu.