Six of the eight members from the Grow Greene County Gaming Corporation attended yesterday’s Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission’s meeting in Johnston.

President Norm Fandel says the meeting primarily dealt with the decision by the Commission to not allow new casino applications for the next three years.  He points out that chairman Jeff Lamberti didn’t put a moratorium so that no applications could be brought to the Commission, but instead they would only allow special or unique situations to be considered.

The Commission voted 3-2 on June 12th for a casino to be built in Greene County and denied Linn County its casino opportunity in April saying that by having a facility in Cedar Rapids could do severe harm to surrounding casinos which is what led the Commission to make the decision to strongly urge against accepting any new applications.

Fandel talks about how fortunate Greene County was in its timing to get a gaming license granted when they did.

“A big advantage for Greene County to have the opportunity for the licensing to build a facility.  Where we’re at and our location I think the outcome still would have been the same as with us moving forward.  They just feel like they need to really take an assessment now and see where Iowa’s going to be with gaming facilities.”

Along with Greene County, there are two other gaming facilities that will open within the year and those include a location in Davenport and Sioux City.

Wild Rose Jefferson is expected to open its facility by August of 2015.