CARTER LAKE, Iowa (WOWT) – The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska is celebrating the sixth anniversary of the Prairie Flower Casino, which Nov. 1, 2018.
While the slots are rolling in the original space, work crews are busy constructing the expansion, growing the casino from its current 7,000 square feet to 70,000 square feet.
“[We had] 200 machines and it’s going to 600 slot machines,” said Ernie Dellaverson, the casino’s general manager. “From no electronic table games to games like craps and blackjack.”
Dellaverson told 6 News there will be two restaurants in the new space, including a sports bar with a sportsbook. And since all of this is technically in Iowa — situated in Carter Lake — unlike Nebraska casinos, guests will be able to gamble on Husker games here.
“We’ll have our sports bar and grill,” Dellaverson said. “It has a beautiful betting lounge, an LED screen that’s got to be 30 feet long. It’s a monster. We can’t wait to televise Husker games there.”
Right now, Prairie Flower has hired around 80 skilled workers to put together this brand new space. When it’s complete, they’ll need more people to work in the expanded casino.
“I’m searching for a great executive chef right now to oversee everything, but we are basically about 105 employees, and about 12 of those individuals are Ponca members or tribal Native Americans,” Dellaverson said. “We are ramping up to about 175 employees now. The bulk of that is going to be the food and beverage component.”
Carter Lake Mayor Ron Cumberledge says the casino has been good for his community, pumping more than $4.5 million into the city.
“It just brought extra funds for us to expand on what we want to do in the past,” said Cumberledge. “We finally completed our new community center, we expanded the police [force], brought in two new officers, a couple more cruisers. We expanded on the fire and resuce side, too, with some new equipment and training.”
Dellaverson believes the metro area market will be able to handle this expansion, and that the recent opening of Omaha’s WarHorse Casino is an indication of just that.
“WarHorse grew the market, so that’s good,” said Dellaverson. “That means we’re not at a market saturation point. The market is still growing, with means we’re at a pivotal point right here to open these doors.”
The original Prairie Flower gaming space will be transformed into administrative offices. Officials hope to have the new expanded gaming floor open in early 2025.
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