French Lick Resort Casino
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
French Lick Resort Casino is a resort and casino complex located in the town of French Lick, Indiana. The casino opened for business on November 3, 2006, but the resorts' history dates well before that.
The casino itself is located on a barge built to resemble a riverboat, which sits on piers in a lake adjacent to the hotel. The hotel itself closed for renovation a year before the casino opening, and reopened along with the casino.
The casino features more than 1,200 slot machines, and table games including blackjack, craps, roulette, and poker.
[edit] History
The location was originally known as the French Lick Springs Resort, a grand resort that catered to those who came to partake of the advertised healing properties of the town's sulfur springs. The first hotel was opened in 1845 and was an immediate success. The original hotel burned in 1897, but the resort was rebuilt on an even grander scale by new owner Thomas Taggart, mayor of Indianapolis. He convinced the Monon Railroad to build a spur directly to the hotel grounds with daily passenger service to Chicago. The rich and famous were guests during the heyday of the resort, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and numerous others. Casino gambling, though technically illegal, flourished near the resort (but not at the resort proper). A golf course was added, designed by Donald Ross; it hosted the 1924 PGA Championship. The resort went into a steady decline with the Great Depression, enjoyed a brief revival during World War II, then went into decline again, particularly after the illegal casinos were shuttered in 1949. The property went through a procession of owners, some of whom attempted to return the resort to its former glory.
Revival in earnest came when, after considerable campaigning by local residents, Indiana gaming authorities finally awarded a long-promised license for a riverboat casino to the city. The new casino was a bit slow to get into the water, after businessman Donald Trump was granted the original operating license, only to have it withdrawn for a variety of reasons. The license was finally awarded to a partnership of business interests from within the region.
