PEORIA — Boyd Gaming will attempt to build its new $160 million casino, a replacement for the Par-A-Dice Riverboat Casino, in East Peoria, ending months of speculation and raising new questions.
Boyd Gaming officials unveiled plans to build a new casino in East Peoria at the Illinois Gaming Board Thursday morning. The gaming board won’t make a decision on Boyd Gaming’s plan until February.
Boyd Gaming will use a definitional loophole in the word “water-based” to build its new casino, confirming fears the city of Peoria has long said it plans to do so.
The rules require that only one riverboat casino can operate in East Peoria, and any land-based casino must be built in Peoria. Boyd Gaming plans to build a land-based casino atop an “Illinois River” body of water, according to renderings presented Thursday. They call this new casino, which will be on land, a “modernized riverboat.”
Boyd Gaming said the casino floor will sit on a 1,000-gallon water basin of the Illinois River, which it says means the new casino will meet regulatory guidelines. Illinois River water will be “pumped directly under the floor of the casino,” Boyd said Thursday.
Boyd Gaming also said Thursday that soil drilling taken from the parking lot showed that the soil beneath the parking lot is consistent with the soil at the bottom of the river, making it one and the same.
The renderings presented by Boyd Gaming on Thursday do not show a new boat, but rather a new building that they will call a “riverboat upgrade.”
An attorney for the city of Peoria spoke briefly with the Illinois Gaming Board on Thursday, saying the city was seeing Boyd’s presentation for the first time, calling it “interesting.” He added that the city is still in discussions with Boyd to find possible solutions to Peoria’s concerns.
Peoria City Manager Patrick Urich told the Journal Star on Thursday that the city will evaluate its options and will “take some time to digest” Boyd Gaming’s presentation, which he confirmed is the first time the city has seen it.
Urich said “no” when asked if Boyd’s presentation and plan came as a surprise.
East Peoria Mayor John Kahl appeared in a prepared video Boyd made Thursday morning asking the gaming board to support Boyd Gaming’s plan for a new casino in East Peoria.
Boyd’s proposed casino would have 29,000 square feet of casino space, 20,500 square feet of ballroom space, a steakhouse and a gastropub, according to Boyd’s presentation.
The new casino will be completed in late 2028 after 16 months of construction, Boyd Gaming said Thursday.
Boyd Gaming estimates it will spend $160 million on the new casino and have an $890 million economic impact on the region over the next 10 years.
(This story will be updated.)
A rendering of Boyd Gaming’s proposed new casino in East Peoria shows a building on land that rests on top of a body of water. Boyd Gaming will use that pool of water under the building to argue that the building is not a land-based operation.
Boyd Gaming will use the loophole to build a new casino in East Peoria
While plans for the new casino are clearer Thursday, new questions will now be raised about whether Boyd Gaming violated an intergovernmental agreement signed between Peoria and East Peoria in 1991 that dictated that any “land-based” casino built in the area must be on the Illinois River’s Peoria side.
Peoria and East Peoria officials have argued over the point for months, with Peoria officials long concerned that Boyd would trigger a loophole centered on “on water” and “land” semantics to build his new casino in East Peoria.
Boyd Gaming’s new casino will, in all practical terms, be a land-based operation to replace the decades-old riverboat docked in East Peoria. But by using a legal loophole, Boyd Gaming will pump water under the casino floor and then argue that it relies on water and is therefore a “water-based” operation.
More: Peoria spent more than $100,000 looking for a land-based casino
Peoria has long suspected and feared that Boyd Gaming and East Peoria were in cahoots with each other to see a new casino built in East Peoria.
In February, attorneys hired by the city of Peoria sent a letter to East Peoria leaders informing them they intended to “enforce” Peoria’s rights established by the 1991 intergovernmental agreement.
“Please be advised that the City of Peoria intends to enforce its rights under the Intergovernmental Agreement to the fullest extent permitted by law,” Peoria attorneys wrote in February. “In this regard, the City of Peoria requests that the City of East Peoria cease all efforts to assist Boyd Gaming Corporation in relocating the Par-A-Dice Casino currently operating on its moored riverboat to a land location (in whole or in part) in the City of East Peoria.”
Attorneys hired by Peoria, from the Elias, Meginnes and Seghetti firm, also wrote in their letter that the city of Peoria has been informed that Boyd Gaming has drilled earth from the parking lot of the current Par-A-Dice Casino, another signal that it plans to use the water-based breach.
In February, Peoria Mayor Rita Ali wrote a letter to the Illinois Gaming Board saying Boyd Gaming must build a casino in Peoria or sell its gaming license. She called the use of a “water-based” definitional loophole “frivolous.”
“Finally, it is important to note that it would be immaterial for Boyd or the City of East Peoria to attempt to manipulate the definition of ‘riverboat’ and/or ‘landboat’ for purposes of the above provisions of the Intergovernmental Agreement and the Act at issue,” Ali said in his February letter. “The literal words, history and context of the Intergovernmental Agreement and the Act are abundantly clear. It is, and always has been, the intent of all concerned that if game Par-A-Dice would move from the existing dock in East Peoria to an onshore facility, those land operations must be in Peoria.”
What does the new casino mean for the Peoria, East Peoria relationship?
Last year, East Peoria Mayor John Kahl and Peoria Mayor Rita Ali exchanged emails in which Kahl told Ali that if Peoria continued efforts to attract a land-based casino to its shores, the relationship between the two cities would be “forever strained.”
At the time, East Peoria accused Peoria of playing games in connection with the casino. Months later, in the February 2025 letter Peoria’s attorneys sent to Kahl, those roles would be reversed.
More: Peoria, Boyd Gaming discussed potential locations for a land-based casino
In a July 2024 email, Kahl wrote to Ali:
“Personally, I greatly appreciate the partnership we have formed over the past few years and am most disappointed to learn that you and your peers in Peoria are going out of their way to force a business organization to move from a neighboring community to yours,” Kahl wrote in an email to Ali. “With both communities benefiting equally from Par-A-Dice gaming revenue, the City of Peoria and the City of East Peoria should together support Boyd Gaming and its rightful desire and decision to renovate and expand casino operations here in East Peoria.”
Ali did not want to see the relationship between the two cities “strained”, but she and other Peoria leaders took a firm position that the 1991 intergovernmental agreement must be respected and if Boyd Gaming were to build a land-based casino, it had to be in Peoria.
“I have to believe, John, that if the situation were reversed, you would take the same position as me and try to enforce our agreement,” Ali wrote to Kahl in 2024.
Par-A-Dice Casino History
The Par-A-Dice Casino opened in 1991, originally docked on the Peoria side of Illinois while its permanent home in East Peoria was being built. In 1993, the boat officially moved to its current home in East Peoria.
The current iteration of the boat was commissioned in 1994, replacing a rowboat that served as the original casino.
When it was decided that the boat would be docked in East Peoria, which came after then-Peoria Mayor Jim Maloof toyed with the idea of gambling in Peoria, the two cities signed a revenue-sharing agreement. That agreement, which still sees the two cities share revenue today, mandates that casino gambling revenue be split equally between Peoria and East Peoria.
However, property taxes, hotel taxes, restaurant taxes, and sales taxes all remain in the community that hosts the casino, making the new operation incredibly profitable for any host city.
Decades later, in 2019, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker would sign a measure to legalize land-based casino gambling in Illinois, and thus a new chapter would be written in the Par-A-Dice Casino battle between Peoria and East Peoria.
Peoria sent a delegation in 2020 consisting of City Manager Patrick Urich; former mayor Jim Ardis; Rep. state Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, D-Peoria; Rep. state Rep. Ryan Spain, R-Peoria; and a Las Vegas lawyer to meet with Boyd Gaming leadership to discuss new land legislation and reaffirm the 1991 intergovernmental agreement.
In 2023, Boyd Gaming first publicly signaled its plans to build a replacement for Par-A-Dice Casino, and the events leading up to Thursday’s announcement were officially set in motion.
More: Par-A-Dice Casino History: From the Legalization of Gambling in Illinois to Modern Disputes
This article originally appeared on the Journal Star: Boyd Gaming to build new Par-A-Dice Casino in East Peoria