Peoria Cities in Illinois Fight Over Future of Boyd Gaming’s Par-A-Dice Casino
Posted on: August 10, 2025, 10:12h.
Last updated on: August 10, 2025, 10:12h.
- East Peoria and Peoria continue to fight over the future of Par-A-Dice
- Boyd Gaming is planning a new casino somewhere in the city metro
- A 1991 agreement says a land-based casino must operate in Peoria
Peoria and East Peoria have been engaged in a bitter dispute over the future of the Par-A-Dice Hotel Casino for more than a year.
Peoria Mayor Rita Ali escalated tensions in a letter to the Illinois Gaming Board (IGB) demanding that Boyd Gaming, which owns and operates the riverboat that’s sat on the southwestern bank of Peoria Lake and the Illinois River for decades, sell its Illinois gaming license if it isn’t willing to build a land-based casino in the Peoria County seat proper.
If Boyd is not prepared to develop land-based gaming and related facilities in Peoria, we ask that the IGB require Boyd to sell the Par-A-Dice gaming license to another casino operator that is prepared to develop a land-based gaming facility in Peoria,” Ali said in a February letter.
The Peoria Journal Star obtained the letter through a Freedom of Information Act request. Boyd bought the riverboat in 1996 for $163 million in cash from a group of local investors who had opened the facility in 1991. The facility now features approximately 550 slot machines, 18 table games, and a FanDuel Sportsbook.
1991 Accord
When local officials in Peoria sought to acquire a riverboat after state lawmakers legalized casino gambling in 1990, they agreed that any form of riverboat gambling would occur in East Peoria. However, should land-based casinos be authorized at any time in the future, a brick-and-mortar casino would need to operate within Peoria. Illinois authorized land-based casinos in 2019.
While East Peoria and Peoria split the 5% tax on Par-A-Dice casino revenue that is allocated as the “local share,” East Peoria keeps all other local tax revenue incurred at the hotel property, including sales, hotel, and food and beverage taxes.
Boyd Gaming President and CEO Keith Smith confirmed during the Las Vegas-based company’s second-quarter earnings call last month that a plan was in the final design stages to “replace our existing riverboat casino at Par-A-Dice.”
Concerned that East Peoria is scheming to keep the casino by orchestrating a way to continue calling the gaming facility a riverboat while allowing it on land, Ali reminded state gaming regulators about the cities’ Intergovernmental Agreement.
It is important to note that it would be frivolous for Boyd or the City of East Peoria to attempt to manipulate the definition of ‘riverboat’ and/or ‘land-based’ for purposes of the above provisions of the Intergovernmental Agreement … at issue,” Ali said. “It is, and always has been, the intention of all concerned that if Par-A-Dice gaming operations were to move off of the existing moored vessel in East Peoria to a facility on land, those land-based operations must be in Peoria.”
At just 26,116 square feet, the Par-A-Dice riverboat is the third-smallest casino in Illinois among the 17 properties.
New Facility Needed
As Casino.org has previously reported, Par-A-Dice has experienced a significant gross gaming revenue (GGR) decline over the past decade.
In 2006, the riverboat generated $82.5 million. By 2019, that number was down to $72.8 million. GGR in 2022 totaled $60.7 million, and was down to $60.5 million last year.
The casino’s struggles have continued in 2025. Through the first half of 2025, GGR totaled $31.11 million, down $57,457 from the same six months in 2024.
Last Comment ( 1 )
Rather we join forces and fight ameren for the electric bill!!