Caesars Indiana
- With a stay at Caesars Southern Indiana in Elizabeth, you'll be on a river and 5 minutes by foot from Horseshoe Southern Indiana Casino. This casino hotel is 13.9 mi (22.3 km) from Louisville Slugger Museum and 14 mi (22.6 km) from Fourth Street Live! Popular Hotel Amenities and Features.
- Caesars became Indiana’s seventh online sportsbook when it launched in May 2020. Licensed by the Indiana Gaming Commission and the company’s third online sports betting site, Caesars Indiana is poised to become one of the state’s biggest players. In this Caesars Sportsbook review, we’ve analyzed everything it has to offer.
- Free wifi is offered to guests, and rooms at Caesars Indiana offer a flat-screen TV, air conditioning, and a desk. During your stay, take advantage of some of the amenities offered, including a 24-hour front desk, a concierge, and coffee shop. Guests of Caesars Southern Indiana Hotel are also welcome to enjoy a pool and on-site restaurants.
Dec 24, 2020 Caesars Southern Indiana, located in Elizabeth, Indiana, will be under new management in 2021. Caesars Entertainment Inc., the casino’s parent company, announced in a news release Thursday it would.
The world’s largest riverboatset sail for its new home last week.
The old home of Caesars Southern Indiana started its journey to Alabama, unlikely to return to the Hoosier State.
Former Indiana riverboat casino
When it first opened shop back in 1998, “Glory of Rome” housed one of Indiana’s first casinos.
Formerly known as Horseshoe Southern Indiana, the casino called the riverboat its home for over two decades.
When Horseshoe first opened, it departed on hour-long trips down the river for paying customers. The ship stopped sailing back in 2001.
In 2015, Indiana passed a law allowing riverboat casinos to move off of the water and into land-based properties.
Eventually, construction began on the building that would take Glory of Rome’s spot as the casino’s home.
That building opened up in December 2019, and with it, the casino’s name changed to Caesars Southern Indiana.
Caesars Southern Indiana for sale
The new building is up for sale, even though it’s only been open for less than a year.
The Indiana Gaming Commission is forcing the sale of the casino as part of Eldorado’smerger with Caesars.
Sitting right across the Ohio River from Louisville, the casino has always had great access to both Indiana and Kentucky’s gambling markets. Because of that Kentucky proximity, Churchill Downs might end up as the leading candidate to buy the property.
Regardless of the new building’s future, the old riverboat now needs a new home.
For now it’s headed to Alabama for some maintenance, but its forever home may end up being in Florida.
Glory of Rome in Florida
Caesars Indiana Riverboat Casino
One of the possible destinations for the riverboat is the Port of Pensacola.
Amy Miller, the port’s director, told the Pensacola News Journal that the port is working on a deal to keep the riverboat there permanently.
“If we are able to reach an agreement with the company, we are looking at potentially developing a site on the east side of the port in the area identified in the Port Vision Plan for non-traditional, maritime-related uses. This would include development of new public access to that area.”
New public access areas would be an important part of the deal since the riverboat is so massive.
Between its four decks, Glory of Rome can hold up to 5,000 passengers at a time.
That’s a lot of people at once, so wherever the riverboat ends up, it’ll need tons of parking and other accommodations.
However, it ultimately depends on what Larry Wireman, the ship’s new owner, decides to do with the riverboat.
If Glory of Rome’s new home is in Pensacola, it’ll likely spend its future years as a restaurant, entertainment venue and conference center.
It wouldn’t take much maintenance to get the ship ready for that kind of role. But that won’t be the case if Wireman decides to transform the ship into a hotel.
If the hotel route ends up happening, the riverboat will likely head to Jacksonville.
Nothing’s set in stone yet, but Glory of Rome’s future likely includes the Sunshine State. It’s a long ways away from the ship’s original Indiana home, but Glory of Rome will still be in service for years to come.
EBCI will rent property from VICI
Caesars Entertainment has agreed to sell the operations of Caesars Southern Indiana to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) for $250m. As part of the deal, the EBCI will be able to keep the Caesars brand with the casino and continue to offer the Caesars Rewards loyalty program at the Elizabeth, Indiana venue.
Once the transaction closes – likely in the third quarter of 2021 – the EBCI will rent the property from VICI Properties for $32.5m per year. VICI, a real estate investment trust spun-off from Caesars Entertainment in 2017, owns the actual real estate of Caesars Southern Indiana; the EBCI is buying only the casino’s operations.
beginning of an exciting new future for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians”
“The purchase of Caesars Southern Indiana operating company marks the beginning of an exciting new future for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians,” said Richard Sneed, Principal Chief Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, in Thursday’s announcement. “We are pleased to build upon our long-standing partnership with Caesars as we look to advance our interests in commercial gaming in the coming years.”
All thanks to Eldorado merger
The sale of Caesars Southern Indiana was necessitated by Caesars’ $17.3bn merger with Eldorado Resorts in August 2020. The two companies needed the approval of gaming regulators in Nevada, Indiana, and New Jersey. The Indiana Gaming Commission gave the deal the green light on the condition that the two companies sell three of their Indiana casinos by the end of the year. Prior to any sales, Caesars and Eldorado owned five of the state’s 13 casinos, amounting to 50-60% of the state’s casino tax revenue.
The merged Caesars Entertainment sold the Tropicana Casino in Evansville to Bally’s Corporation for $480m. The sale of the Elizabeth operations to the EBCI had been in the works for a few months.
The last Indiana casino on Caesars’ chopping block is Horseshoe Hammond, on Lake Michigan near Chicago. Because of delays attributed to uncertainty about gambling expansion in Illinois and the state of the industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, Caesars petitioned the Indiana Gaming Commission for an extension to the sale deadline. The commission granted the extension, now requiring the sale of the casino by December 31, 2021.
Cherokees expanding casino footprint
This will be the third casino under the ownership of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The tribe owns two casinos in North Carolina: Harrah’s Cherokee and Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River.
Caesars Indiana Hotel
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians uses the proceeds from its casinos to better its community. Located in the far western part of North Carolina, the EBCI’s land trust is about 83 square miles and of its more than 16,000 enrolled members, about half live on tribal land. The EBCI puts at least $5m in casino profits into the Cherokee Preservation Fund each year to pay for non-gambling economic development, cultural preservation, and environmental protection. Additional profits go to improving tribal education, housing, healthcare, and more.