Last updated: May 09, 2024
After a close 10-9 vote by the Kenosha County Board of Supervisors, the $360 million Hard Rock Casino Kenosha project moves to federal consideration. Developed by the Menominee Tribe in collaboration with Hard Rock International, the casino project gains momentum, marking a significant milestone in Wisconsin’s gaming landscape.
To proceed with the Wisconsin tribal gaming project, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Kenosha has formally secured the necessary local support.
The $360 million enterprise was approved by the Kenosha County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, January 16 by a narrow vote of 10 to 9. After a delayed start and several hours of deliberation, the supervisors finally cast their votes at around one in the morning local time on January 17, 2017, bringing about the outcome.
The Hard Rock project is ready to go federal with support from the county supervisors. The Kenosha Common Council voted 11–6 in favour of the casino earlier this month.
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In collaboration with Hard Rock International, a company owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin is behind the Hard Rock Kenosha project.
The Menominee Tribe, whose Menominee Casino Resort in Keshena presently serves as the main source of its economic sovereignty, hopes to increase the size of its gaming industry.
Since the tribe intends to erect the Hard Rock casino on 60 acres of currently city-owned land located at 60th Street, west of Interstate 94, local approval was required for the project. The Dairyland Greyhound Park racetrack once stood on the site.
The Menominee Tribe now needs federal approval from the US Department of the Interior (DOI) and its Bureau of Indian Affairs after the county and city approved the land sale to the tribe for $15 million. The Interior Department must accept newly acquired lands into the federal trust for the Menominees to maintain their historical ties to the region.
The Menominees would complete the authorization process with Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers (D) if the DOI places the land into trust. Evers would then need to consent to the extension of the tribe’s Class III gaming compact to the Kenosha facility. In 2022, Evers expressed his willingness to allow “tribal nations of Wisconsin to operate casinos on their sovereign lands.”
Unfortunately, outside of Wisconsin, Kenosha is most remembered for the disturbances that shook the city in August 2020 due to nocturnal run-ins with law enforcement, which included rioting and arson. Kyle Rittenhouse shot three people on August 25, killing two of them, ages 36 and 26. This incident brought attention to the unrest. Later on, Rittenhouse was found not guilty on any count, not even two counts of homicide.
Though it would be the first in Wisconsin, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino would join more than a dozen other Hard Rock casinos across the United States.
The project includes a Hard Rock Bet Sportsbook in addition to a casino floor with 1,500 slot machines and 50 table games. The resort would have 150 rooms, seven dining options, a Hard Rock Café, an 8,500-square-foot ballroom, 2,000 seats for Hard Rock Live concerts, and retail stores.
According to Hard Rock, the resort would pay over $1,000 per year to over 1,000 workers.
There are no commercial gaming resorts in Wisconsin; only tribal casinos exist there. Native American communities own more than twenty casinos and gaming halls in the Badger State. The Oneida and Ho-Chunk nations are the biggest gaming tribes in the state.
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