CGA E-Newsletter for October 2009

Our industry welcomed the fall season with the grand opening of Ameristar's 536-room hotel last week. The event was kicked off by Ameristar's CEO Gordon Kanovsky and Governor Bill Ritter as the red banner was rolled down to reveal the Ameristar name on the hotel tower. Reggie Fullwood, Ameristar's general manager, told the crowd that after blasting through a mountain, enduring several snow storms and other construction delays, Black Hawk now has its first "destination resort" and can compete with other gaming markets.

CGA's Legislative Tours

The CGA staff and board members conducted three legislative tours during August and September 2009. Legislators who participated in the tours included Senators Dan Gibbs, Mark Scheffel, Nancy Spence, Pat Steadman and Senate President Brandon Shaffer. Representatives included Dennis Apuan, Cheri Gerou, Joel Judd, Claire Levy, Larry Liston, and Carole Murray. The elected officials were given a "back of the house" tour in all three gaming towns, and were able to talk with our members about operational and regulatory issues. It was a valuable experience for our industry as well as our senators and representatives and we hope to do more of these tours in the future.

NCRG Brings its "Road Show" to Colorado

The National Center for Responsible Gaming will be in Denver October 15-16, 2009 to inform the Colorado gaming community about the important research it conducts on gaming-related mental health issues in order to establish best practices for treatment of gambling addiction. NCRG will speak to CGA members at a luncheon at 12 noon on Thursday, October 15, 2009 at Ameristar Casino in Black Hawk. If you and your team members would like to attend, please RSVP to Veronica Brown at vbrown@ncrg.org. We hope to see you there!

Congress May Relax Off-reservation Gaming Rules

On September 21, 2009, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Interior was considering relaxing the rules allowing tribes to develop off-reservation casinos. Currently, tribes that take land into trust for an off-reservation gaming operation must still locate their casino within 40 miles of their actual reservation. The rule change would eliminate this requirement. As a result of the Journal's article, U.S. House of Representative Colorado delegation members Doug Lamborn, Mike Coffman and Jared Polis wrote a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar alerting the Department that any relaxation of current off-reservation restrictions could have harmful effects on local communities and eliminate local control decisions regarding expansion of gaming in Colorado. The American Gaming Association believes that any changes to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act will require a 2-year process, at best.

Meet CGA's New Partner

CGA has partnered with Tour Colorado, a statewide organization of tour promoters for Colorado. Tour Colorado's 1,500 members and tourism partners have joined the CGA's grassroots network in order to help protect state funding for tourism promotion, and to help support our limited gaming industry. To learn more about Tour Colorado, click on their logo and you will be directed to their website.