Governor JB Pritzker continued his Rebuild Illinois tour with stops in Southern Illinois.
His first stop was at Walkers Bluff to celebrate the future expansion of a casino, hotel and conference center.
“We’ve authorized a casino license for Walkers Bluff Resort expansion (applause).”
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker joined state and local officials along with dozens of other community and business leaders to celebrate the next step in the Walkers Bluff expansion.
The resort will have two hotels 330 rooms between the casino and water park
The estimated $300 million private investment in the resort is expected to produce 700 full time and 1100 part time jobs.
Owner and CEO Cynde Bunch says the resort will benefit everyone one in Southern Illinois
“What has been shown by the feasibility study was $15 million a year in tax dollars that would go to roads and improve infrastructure and a little over $90 million in dollars a year would come in paychecks to employees of the area.”
Five more casino licenses were also added to the capital plan, which Governor Pritzker says will help Illinois.
“In total across our state gaming will bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in new state revenue when this is fully implemented and its one of the tools with which were funding our new infrastructure plan.”
Senator Dale Fowler has been working to help Walker’s Bluff obtain a casino license for over 2 years and credits passing the capital bill from Democrats and Republicans working together.
“This has been a bi-partisan initiative from day one there’s been tough decisions that had to be made we have to continue to work forward.”
Walker’s Bluff is looking to break ground on Labor Day and open in January of 2021.
