Backers of a proposed northern Iowa casino says southern Minnesotans would be a primary marketing target. Worth County voters have approved the idea of establishing a floating casino in their area. Dennis May of Kensett, a former state Representative who backs the project, says the closest casino is an hour and 40 minutes away — in Minnesota, and the Worth County operation would consider the southern tier of counties in Minnesota a primary target. May, who sits on the Worth County Board of Supervisors, says that’s what they’re banking on — Minnesotans who would consider driving to a closer casino in Iowa rather than heading up to the casinos near the Twin Cities. Each state-licensed gambling operation in Iowa must dedicate a portion of profits to charity, and May says a Worth County operation would spread its charity across the border.May says it would show the Iowa casino appreciates the business it gets from Minnesota. May says “if we’re bringing in the money from Minnesota, we should be able to give a bit back” to Minnesota. Will Cummings, a consultant who analyzes the gambling industry, says data shows you can’t count on people to travel long distances to a casino. Cummings says every casino market behaves in this way A recent analysis of the “car count” at a Nebraska race track showed the farther away someone lived from the track, the less they visited the facility. Cummings says one difficulty a Worth County casino may encounter is that rural residents tend to spend a lower proportion of this income on gambling than urbanites do. Cummings says it’s no accident that larger facilities are in larger areas — “people planned it that way.”
