Members of the Iowa Gambling Casino Restricted License Study Committee met on Tuesday to discuss the reintroduction of a bill that would allow for the construction of the first smoke-free casino within the state’s borders.
Wally Horn, a Cedar Rapids-based legislator and Co-chairman of the committee, said that he would like to present the Iowa Legislature with a legislation that outlines the guidelines for the establishment of a completely smoke-free gaming facility in Cedar Rapids. The Linn County-located city is the second largest one in Iowa.
The Democratic State Senator is not the only one that supports the launch of a gambling venue in Cedar Rapids or the surrounding area. City Mayor Ron Corbett and his administration have been pushing for such a venue for years now. In fact, it was Mayor Corbett that first pitched the proposal for a smoke-free casino earlier this year. However, his efforts have not been rewarded so far.
In 2014, the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, the regulator that decides whether a given casino proposal is to receive the necessary license, rejected a proposal for the construction of a gambling facility in Linn County. Commissioners explained their decision with the fact that surrounding counties vocally opposed the project as it do irreparable harm to other casinos in the region and the state as a whole.
Although their plan was rejected by the gambling regulator, supporters of the project kept on urging for a casino. Mayor Corbett has repeatedly pointed out that a casino in the city would give local economy a much-needed boost, create new jobs, and contribute a significant portion of gaming revenue that would be spent on the region’s recovery from a severe flooding. And as mentioned above, if the state gambling regulator eventually approves the Cedar Rapids casino, it would be Iowa’s first smoke-free one.
The state Legislature is scheduled to reconvene on January 11, 2016. And it seems that Sen. Horn is determined to reintroduce his casino bill during next year’s legislative session. The legislator submitted his proposal for a smoke-free casino in the Cedar Rapids area for a consideration during the 2015 legislative session. However, he pulled it soon after. Several other related bills also failed to advance last legislative session.
