Casino plan dead in water

La Crosse Tribune, Apr 07, 1995 by Blum, Grant

If Tuesday's vote was the handwriting on the wall, it sent a clear message to supporters of the La Crosse casino.

The effort to bring a casino to the Holiday Inn is officially dead, said Richard Keegan, vice president of the Alden Group, the company which owns the Holiday Inn and would have financed the proposed $50 million casino.

Keegan said Tuesday's advisory referendum that had voters opposing the casino by a 20,748 to 11,056 vote makes further efforts to bring a casino to La Crosse fruitless.

"I think the message was pretty clear," Keegan said. Noting that a proposed sports lottery to help pay for a new Milwaukee Brewer stadium failed by about the same 2 to 1 margin, Keegan said: "My reading of the referendums is that there is opposition to any more gaming."

Keegan said he was disappointed in the failure of the business community to back the project, and said voters were also influenced by "scare tactics" of church groups who mobilized opposition.

"There was a lot of misinformation," Keegan said. "All we wanted to do was to see if the people of La Crosse wanted it."

Keegan also said he plans to mail more than 1,400 copies of his analysis of a Greater La Crosse Area Chamber of Commerce study to chamber members.

The chamber did not take a stand but a straw poll taken two weeks before the study was completed showed overwhelming opposition to a casino.

Casino backers had said they wanted to build a resort and gaming complex at the Holiday Inn site with 390 hotel rooms, 70,000-square feet of gaming space, 40,000-square feet of family entertainment area, restaurants, a bar and a glass enclosed water shuttle service to different parts of the complex.

Keegan said he discussed the issue with Al Salazar, president of Alden, who also agreed that all efforts to continue a casino project here should be dropped.