Ameristar Casino East Chicago

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.

Ameristar Casino Hotel East Chicago
The Win Star vessel hosts the casino (view from Lake Michigan)
Location East Chicago, Indiana
Address 777 Ameristar Blvd
Opening dateApril 18, 1997
No. of rooms288
Casino typeRiverboat
OwnerGaming and Leisure Properties
Operating license holderPenn Entertainment
Previous namesShowboat Mardi Gras
Harrah's East Chicago
Resorts East Chicago
Coordinates41.652467°N 87.436240°W / 41.652467; -87.436240
Websiteameristareastchicago.com

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
  1. "Fact_Sheet_East_Chicago" (PDF). Ameristar.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-06-02. Retrieved 2012-05-31.
  2. "Showboat casino opens with a bang". Post-Tribune. Indiana. May 21, 1997. Archived from the original on September 21, 2014. Retrieved 2012-05-13.
  3. John Grochowski (June 21, 1998). "Showboat changes course". Chicago Sun-Times.
  4. "Harrah's East Chicago casino is sold to Colony Capital". Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. September 2004. Retrieved 2008-06-22.
  5. "AMERISTAR CASINOS' ACQUISITION OF RESORTS EAST CHICAGO" (Press release). Ameristar Casinos. September 13, 2007. Archived from the original on July 18, 2012. Retrieved 2008-06-22.
  6. Keith Benman (December 21, 2012). "Ameristar Casino dealt to new owner in $869 million deal". The Times of Northwest Indiana. Retrieved 2016-07-23.
  7. Howard Stutz (August 14, 2013). "Pinnacle Entertainment completes $2.8 billion buyout of Ameristar Casinos". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2016-07-23.
  8. Andrew Steele (April 27, 2016). "Judge allows Ameristar deal to proceed". The Times of Northwest Indiana. Retrieved 2016-07-23.
  9. "Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc. completes the previously announced acquisition of the real estate assets of Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc" (Press release). Pinnacle Entertainment. April 28, 2016. Archived from the original on August 22, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  10. Andrew Steele (October 16, 2018). "Penn National completes acquisition of Ameristar-owner Pinnacle Entertainment". The Times of Northwest Indiana. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  11. "WINSTAR Boat Information". BoatInfoWorld.com. Retrieved July 2, 2012.
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