User:Halvorsen brian/The Trump Casino (Indiana)

The Trump Casino was a riverboat casino based in Gary, Indiana. It was owned and operated by Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts.

Riverboat casino development
The Indiana Riverboat Gambling Act passed the Indiana Legislature and was signed into law in 1993 and shortly thereafter real estate developer Donald Trump visited the town of Gary, Indiana to talk to local leaders about the possibility of a Trump branded riverboat casino. Trump paid the required non-refundable deposit of $50,000 to the Indiana Department of Revenue per the the Riverboat Gambling Act.

Unlike the nine other cities that the Indiana Riverboat Gambling enabled to issue a gambling licence, Gary was given the exclusive rights to permit two separate casinos who were allowed to open six months before any of the other cities' casinos.

In 1989 Donald Trump was asked about his thoughts on legal gambling in Indiana to which he was quoted by members of the Chicago press as stating, "I think Gary would be a bad place for [legal gambling] [...] It's an industrial town. People would take their paychecks and gamble it. At least Las Vegas and Atlantic City aren't like that. You have to make the effort to go to either of those places."

During a Gary City Council meeting on November 29, 1993 several potential developers, including Donald Trump's company Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, were invited to unveil their proposals to the public. Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts was scheduled to go last but due to the amount of items they had to display, including a scale model of the tentatively named Trump Marina Resort, the group went first. They announced their plan to spend over $100 million on a 300 room hotel, three restaurants, a riverboat that could serve up to 3,000 persons and a marina with 1,300 slips. It was estimated by Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts that 1,700 direct jobs would come out of the project.

Hotel development
Development of the hotel for The Trump Casino broke ground on September X, 1997 on the shores of Lake Michigan in Buffington Harbor, Indiana. It was scheduled to be completed by July 1998.