New $200 million casino opens near Shelbyville

SHELBYVILLE, Ind. — Thousands of people lined up for the opening of the new $200 million casino at the Indiana Downs horse track near Shelbyville on Friday, forcing police to turn some visitors away as the facility filled up.

Police began turning cars away about 9 p.m. after the building reached its capacity of 8,000, television news reports said.

"Crowd is not a word that we can use tonight," said Shelbyville Mayor Scott Furgeson. "It's quite an understatement."

Interstate 74 was backed up for about three miles as traffic jammed the casino exit. The casino opened its doors a half-hour early due to the pressing crowd.

Some might have come expecting to see singer Justin Timberlake and actress Jessica Biel, who had been expected to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony. But the stars didn't show up in time for that event and still hadn't shown up by 11 p.m., TV news reports said. WTHR-TV reported that the celebrities had RSVP'ed and casino officials weren't sure of the reason for their apparent absence.

The track's Indiana Live casino opened in a temporary building last June. The 233,000 square-foot casino features some 2,000 slot machines and several restaurants along Interstate 74 about 15 miles southeast of Indianapolis.

The state Legislature in 2007 approved allowing Indiana Downs and Hoosier Park in Anderson to open the slot-machine casinos after paying $250 million for the licenses.

The tracks, however, are now asking legislators for lower wagering taxes, in part because of misjudged revenue projections that have left them struggling to pay debts they took on to pay the licensing fees.

The Indiana House has approved the tax-break measure, and it is pending in the Senate.

The slot-machine casinos at the two central Indiana tracks are in addition to the state's 11 full-scale casinos — five on Lake Michigan, five on the Ohio River and one in the southern Indiana resort town of French Lick.