Eastern Peoria Mayor John Kal is unwavering in his position that the city of Peoria potentially strains relations between the two cities through his continuous pursuit of lure the casino with the casino of the souls on his side of the Illinois River.
Cal said so much to an audience at the Par-A-Dice Casino Hotel on Friday during his state of the city, in which he said he knew that the emails he sent to Peoria Mayor Rita Ali for the casino would be public. In these emails, he said Peoria threatened to “strain” the connection between the two cities, and on Friday he told the Eastern Peoria audience in the casino that she was left of these words.
Cal said during his speech that Eastern Peoria would “protect” the rights of private business to make its own decisions and the city will not tell the business “what to do” or “where you have to be”, it seems that it will make a veiled shot in Peeria for its efforts to bring Boyd to its city.
In this Star File Photo magazine from 2023, the hotel and casino PAR-A-DICE sits on the shore of the Illinois Ice River at the foot of Blackjack Boulevard in Eastern Peoria.
Cal told reporters after his speech that he would support any decision that Boyd Gaming in place of the planned new casino.
“Boyd, whatever their decision is, they take the game for the games and approve of it,” Kal said. “This is their decision to make. I appeared to Boyd a few years ago when it all started, if you will, what the position of Eastern Peoria was. We had a great partnership with them and I like to think that it said a lot.”
Kahl also expressed its dissatisfaction with Peoria’s efforts, which include displaying Boyd Gaming at least three possible places that can build a new terrestrial casino.
“Allow Peoria to continue to let go of everything they hope to do, I hope he can’t talk about them,” Cal said.
More: David vs Goliath: How Eastern Peoria won the battle for casino of river boats three decades ago
A break between leadership in Peoria and Eastern Peoria has grown for months after Boyd Gaming has signaled last year that it plans to build a new casino facility somewhere in the Peoria area.
Boyd Gaming operates the PAR-A-DICE river boat casino in Eastern Peoria since 1993
However, when the battle observed between Eastern Peoria and Peoria, today, is an agreement of 1991, signed between the two municipalities, which dictated that if a terrestrial casino would ever be built in the region, it would have to be on the part of the Peoria River.
Last year, when Boyd signaled that he would build a new casino, which would probably be on the land-peer, an effort began to lure the company to its side of the river and to remind it of the 1991 agreement.
However, Cal believes that Peoria exceeds and neglects the benefit that casino carries in the region as a whole. Currently, the revenue from taxes on the casino games are divided equally between the two cities.
“I think many people have this misconception about the pieces,” Kal said on Friday. “The revenue is divided into 50% from each country. I don’t know why they can’t wrap their hands. Boyd really did a huge job, supporting the whole region and I hope people understand this.”
However, all other taxes – like those generated by ownership taxes, sales taxes and hotel taxes – remain in the city town.
Cal called Peoria’s comments on “nonsense”.
“There is a benefit to this region and for some reason they do not see the benefit obviously based on some of their comments that are nonsense,” Cal said. “Boyd did a good job by supporting the whole region and I can’t say good enough for the whole company.”
Boyd Gaming Executive Director Keith Smith told shareholders in January that Boyd hopes to build a casino with an approximate price of $ 100 million to replace the Par-A-Jice casino in Eastern Peoria. He said they were hoping to start construction in early 2026.
More: Peoria, Boyd Gaming have discussed potential ground casino places
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: East Peoria The Mayor says Peoria’s Casino comments are “nonsense”