Ameristar Casino Hotel East Chicago (formerly Showboat Mardi Gras Casino, Harrah's East Chicago, and Resorts East Chicago) is a riverboat casino in East Chicago, Indiana, docked at Indiana Harbor on Lake Michigan. It is owned by Gaming and Leisure Properties and operated by Penn Entertainment.
The property features a 56,000-square-foot casino that offers 1,900 slot machines including reels, video reels and video poker; more than 40 table games; a high limit gaming room that is on land adjacent to the riverboat; and a 288-room hotel.[1]
History
Showboat Mardi Gras Casino opened on April 18, 1997.[2] In 1998, Harrah's Entertainment bought Showboat, Inc. and renamed the property as Harrah's East Chicago. Harrah's later sold it to Resorts International Holdings, and the casino's name was changed, along with the street name to 777 Resort Blvd (similar to the addresses used for some Harrah's branded casinos: 777 Harrah's Blvd). It was later sold in 2007 to Ameristar Casinos and changed its name to Ameristar before the September 2008 deadline.[3][4][5]
In August 2013, the property became part of Pinnacle Entertainment when that company acquired Ameristar Casinos.[6][7] In April 2016, the property was sold to Gaming and Leisure Properties along with almost all of Pinnacle's real estate assets, and leased back to Pinnacle.[8][9]
In October 2018, Penn National Gaming (now Penn Entertainment) acquired the property's operations as part of its acquisition of Pinnacle.[10]
Vessel
The Win Star is the vessel that hosts the casino. The vessel uses a diesel reduction propulsion system and has a length of 332.2 feet. The boat's gross tons is 2803.0 and net tons measures 1906.0. It was built in 1997 by Atlantic Marine, Inc.[11]
References
- Fact_Sheet_East_Chicago Ameristar.com, retrieved 2012-05-31^
- Showboat casino opens with a bang Post-Tribune, May 21, 1997, retrieved 2012-05-13^
- John Grochowski. Showboat changes course Chicago Sun-Times, June 21, 1998^
- Harrah's East Chicago casino is sold to Colony Capital. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, September 2004, retrieved 2008-06-22^
- AMERISTAR CASINOS' ACQUISITION OF RESORTS EAST CHICAGO Ameristar Casinos, September 13, 2007, retrieved 2008-06-22^
- Keith Benman. Ameristar Casino dealt to new owner in $869 million deal The Times of Northwest Indiana, December 21, 2012, retrieved 2016-07-23^
- Howard Stutz. Pinnacle Entertainment completes $2.8 billion buyout of Ameristar Casinos Las Vegas Review-Journal, August 14, 2013, retrieved 2016-07-23^
- Andrew Steele. Judge allows Ameristar deal to proceed The Times of Northwest Indiana, April 27, 2016, retrieved 2016-07-23^
- Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc. completes the previously announced acquisition of the real estate assets of Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc. Pinnacle Entertainment, April 28, 2016, retrieved 2016-07-22^
- Andrew Steele. Penn National completes acquisition of Ameristar-owner Pinnacle Entertainment The Times of Northwest Indiana, October 16, 2018, retrieved 2018-10-16^
- WINSTAR Boat Information BoatInfoWorld.com, retrieved July 2, 2012^