Ho-Chunk Nation opens $705m casino in Beloit, Wisconsin

The Ho-Chunk Nation opened a $705m casino in Beloit, Wisconsin, on Friday, 23 October, the tribe announced. The venue opened after nearly three decades of planning, according to the announcement.

Gaming at the venue includes more than 1,300 slot machines alongside table games, a steakhouse and a food truck area. Annual net winnings are projected to exceed $150 million, and part of the gaming revenue is to be shared with the city of Beloit, Rock County and the state of Wisconsin.

Visit Beloit reports that 600 jobs have already been created by the development. Once an attached hotel and conference centre open next year, another 900 positions are anticipated. Plans also include a hotel and parking structure, scheduled for completion in fall 2027.

According to Jon Greendeer, President of the Ho-Chunk Nation, bringing the project to this point required over two decades of struggle. Spectrum News 1 reported his remark: "We’ve been fighting 12-headed dragons for over 20 years to make this happen today". In Greendeer's view, the project will generate economic opportunities for the tribal community and the wider region, both through job creation and through spending on local goods and services.

Celestino Ruffini, CEO of Visit Beloit, described the project as an example of patience and persistence, noting that the community had waited nearly three decades for it. Travel and tourism accounts for roughly 3,700 jobs in Rock County, he said. With the casino and its planned hotel and conference centre, about 1,500 jobs are expected to be added, an increase of nearly 50%.

Clayton Winneshiek, Tribal Chief of the Ho-Chunk Nation, told Rockford News First that the project had required years of work and collaboration before it could be realised. The tribe's economic development, he added, has shifted over time away from smoke shops and bingo halls toward casinos, and now looks beyond gaming to helping the communities around it.

Beloit sits on land that belonged to the Ho-Chunk Nation in the past, and the tribe started buying the site back for the casino in 1992. Those who came to the opening celebration could meet former NFL players, watch a flag-raising ceremony and hear a live DJ. Among the Ho-Chunk Nation's casinos in Wisconsin, the Beloit venue ranks as the seventh and the biggest.