Gov. Holcomb Ratifies Gaming Compact With Pokagon, Four Winds Casino

The Four Winds venue in South Bend is on the verge of becoming a fully operational casino.

This week, Gov. Holcomb journeyed north to approve the state’s tribal compact with the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians.

Once the US Department of Interior gives its final approval, the compact will introduce Class III gaming to the casino. The government has a 45-day window to accomplish this.

Table Games at Four Winds South Bend

Currently, at Four Winds, you are limited to playing games that involve competition against other players.

This is a significant departure from the usual casino experience where patrons bet against the house.

Introducing Class III gaming to Four Winds will standardize the gambling experience there.

This enables Four Winds to incorporate blackjack, roulette, craps, slot machines, and other traditional casino games.

Adding those games, which are some of the most favored by casino goers across the US, should prove successful for Four Winds.

The casino is also incorporating a sportsbook into the building, which could potentially become very popular in South Bend due to betting on Notre Dame football.

The only tribal casino in Indiana is Four Winds, while the remaining gambling establishments in the state are owned by corporations such as Caesars and Penn National Gaming.

Soon, Four Winds will be at par with the state’s commercial casinos.

It took a long time to reach this point.

Back in 2019, the Pokagon Band initially submitted a request to initiate the process.

Then, negotiations needed to occur.

The Indiana General Assembly finally approved everything last month, after reaching an agreement on the compact.

The deal from the state’s perspective is now official as Gov. Holcomb has signed the bill.

Tribal compact benefits both sides.

The new tribal compact agreement results in a win for everyone.

The Pokagon Band has been granted table games at its casino, with Indiana set to receive 8% of the slot revenue from the property. Additionally, a new gambling option has been made available to residents of northern Indiana.

This is a solid deal for the state due to the tax dollars.

Since Four Winds casino operates on sovereign land, Indiana is unable to collect taxes from it.

That will be altered by the tribal-state compact.

Four Winds was ready to forfeit the tax revenue in return for incorporating table games.

The Pokagon Band’s tax losses should be more than compensated for by the profits from those games.

Notre Dame University is located in South Bend, which is the fourth-largest city in the state.

The absence of outside competition nearby, in conjunction with that, should turn Four Winds into a popular gambling hub in the area.

Hard Rock Northern Indiana and Four Winds

The agreement is assisting the Pokagon Band in maintaining their market share in the state’s northern region.

The compact incorporates a 50-mile exclusion zone around Four Winds Casino, which will aid in keeping other competition at a distance.

Currently, Blue Chip in Michigan City is the nearest casino to Four Winds.

For the foreseeable future, Blue Chip will be the sole competitor in the vicinity.

Due to the compact, the exclusion zone prohibits the opening of new casinos or the relocation of riverboat casinos inland.

Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana, which is having its grand opening in Gary next week, is the exception to that rule.

That brand new land-based property is taking the place of the old Majestic Star Casino riverboats.

Since Hard Rock was already far along in the process of making the move before the state approved the compact, the company is allowed to proceed.

Nonetheless, there won’t be any further exceptions to the buffer zone around Four Winds.

To put it differently, don’t anticipate the opening of a new casino in the northern part of the state in the near future.

The compact will automatically be nullified if Indiana ever chooses to violate the exclusion zone rule.

Assuming everything proceeds smoothly, the agreement between the Pokagon Band and Indiana is set to last for 20 years.