Blue Chip Casino is located approximately 32 miles from South Bend. Regarded as one of the best Casinos in South Bend area, Blue Chip Casino is located at 2 Easy St. Call them at (219) 879-7711. We hope you enjoy this lodging guide from World Casino Directory. This hotel directory features all the lodging deals we have in South Bend, Indiana. Or to switch cities, return to the Indiana hotel list and choose an alternate location. SOUTH BEND — More than five years after the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians announced plans to build a casino northern Indiana, Four Winds South Bend stands ready to open next week.

Published 10:58 AM EDT Aug 26, 2017

When the Pokagon band of Potawatomi opened its Four Winds Casino Resort in Michigan in 2007, just 4 miles from the Indiana border, it immediately began siphoning business away from the nearby Blue Chip Casino Hotel Spa in Indiana.

In just one year, Michigan City's Blue Chip casino cut 165 employees and lost $58 million in revenue.

Now state officials and the casino industry as a whole are bracing for an even bigger hit. The Pokagon are poised to open Indiana's first Indian casino, in South Bend, in January.

Not only will it likely drain more business from nearby Blue Chip, but Indiana potentially stands to lose millions in casino tax revenue because tribal casinos are immune from such taxes.

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That revenue stream is already under strain as the state's 11 existing casinos and two racinos face increasing competition from nearby gambling operations in neighboring states, particularly in the Cincinnati area.

In the past seven years alone, casino tax revenue to the state general fund has fallen by $237.4 million, or 35 percent.

Now the drop could be more precipitous.

'Nobody (in Indiana) has dealt with this before,' said Ed Feigenbaum, editor of the Indiana Gaming Insight newsletter. 'It's going to be a game changer, and it’s going to be particularly bad news for Blue Chip in Michigan City.'

About the Pokagon casino

The new casino is a means of economic development for the Pokagon tribe's 5,000 citizens scattered throughout southern Michigan and northern Indiana.

The tribe had been separated until 1994 when it became federally recognized after decades of pushing to be reaffirmed. Since then, it has built homes for many of its citizens, a large casino in New Buffalo, Mich., and two other smaller satellite casinos in that state.

The 175,000-square-foot South Bend casino will be similar in size and appearance to the New Buffalo location. It will have 1,800 slot machines, restaurants, three bars, a coffee shop and retail outlets and employ 1,200 people.

Like the New Buffalo location, some of the decor and architecture is inspired by the tribe's history. The rotunda will feature the tribe's native basketry. A fire will be constantly burning in the rotunda, representing the ceremonial fires of the Potawatomi culture.

Tribe chairman John Warren said the casino revenue has had a tremendous impact on the Pokagons, providing the financial support necessary to return many to their ancestral homeland after being forced west by the U.S. government in the 1830s and allowing the tribe to provide health care and other services.

'It's because of the Pokagon band's tribal council and also advice and the wants and needs of our tribal citizens that we engaged in gaming,' Warren said. 'And it's just a success story from there. Most of the infrastructure and most of the services that were built in the last 10 years is because of Four Winds.'

No other Native American tribe in Indiana has come close to being able to open a casino. To do so, the tribe must be federally recognized and then be approved for a land grant by the federal government.

'It's the first time in 200 years in Indiana that they actually have Indian country,' Warren said. 'And we're very proud of that.'

In South Bend, the tribe is building its own police station as well as homes for six Pokagon families who want to move onto the 607-acre property. While that number is small compared to Native American reservations out west, leaders emphasized the potential for growth.

Nationally, tribes have opted to run casinos to improve conditions on reservations.

Since Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988, tribal gaming has exploded. Indian gaming revenue reached a record $31.2 billion high in 2016. Twenty-eight states already have tribal gaming, according to the National Indian Gaming Commission.

While that's good news for Native Americans, it has put existing casinos and states reliant on casino revenue in a difficult position.

Uncharted territory for Indiana

Indiana is only beginning to learn how to navigate the uncharted territory.

State officials have hired an outside law firm to help make sense of the complex federal laws related to the tribe and its operations. Dykema Gossett, which has advised Wisconsin and Michigan on similar matters, will be paid $200,000 over the next year to assist the state.

The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act passed by Congress three decades ago gave tribal communities the ability to open casinos on their land without state approval or taxation, as long as they only offered Class II gaming. That essentially means most anything short of live table games and certain types of slot machines.

That doesn't mean, however, that tribes can't offer to provide revenue to local or state government.

The Pokagon have an agreement with South Bend to provide the city with $400,000 for water and sewer services, a maximum of $5 million toward community development over the next five years and 2 percent of the casino’s net win, or a minimum of $2 million, toward the city’s budget.

“The tribe was in their rights to go forward with gaming with or without us,” South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg said. “Our stance has always been that we are supportive, provided that this can be set up in a way that this is a net win for the community.”

The Pokagon also could negotiate with the state to win approval to offer live table games in exchange for sharing some revenue with state government, as they have in Michigan.

So far the tribe hasn’t pushed for an agreement and doesn't expect to do so in the near future, meaning the state is losing out on taxes essential to its general fund, economic development, the State Fair Commission and the Division of Mental Health.

A spokesman for Gov. Eric Holcomb said it would be 'premature' to say whether he would sign a compact with the Pokagon to allow for table games or how much revenue he would expect in return.

Even if Holcomb decides to negotiate, his hands may be tied by the Indiana General Assembly. State lawmakers largely have been opposed to any sort of compact with tribes since the passage of the federal act.

When the Pokagon started to eye Indiana for a casino in 2015, the General Assembly passed a measure that requires lawmakers to approve any gambling compacts between tribes and the state.

Winning approval from the legislature could be challenging. Many lawmakers want to protect the interest of casinos in their own districts, and many others simply are opposed to expanding gambling beyond what the state already offers.

Earlier this year, a plan to create a state-licensed casino in Terre Haute died in committee before it could even make it to a floor vote.

“Any time you deal with gaming legislation, it’s always going to be challenging,” said Rep. Todd Huston, R-Fishers. “(Whether or not the compact is approved) is going to depend on what the details of the agreement are going to look like.”

If the state and the Pokagon came to an agreement, Indiana could salvage some of the tax dollars it would otherwise lose. The Pokagon paid Michigan $19.4 million and local governments $6.1 million for its New Buffalo and satellite casinos in 2016.

That’s still less than the $43 million on average that each of Indiana’s 11 casinos contributed to state and local taxes in fiscal year 2017.

But the tribe may not see any value in paying taxes or fees just to get table games. Frank Freedman, Four Winds’ chief operating officer, said expanding to live table games would not be that much of a win.

“In our industry, slots are overwhelmingly the larger percentage of our business. Overwhelmingly,” Freedman said. “So when you really start to sit down and look at the financial planning data, it was really easy for us to conclude that this is going to be a home run.”

About the Pokagon casino

Uncharted territory for Indiana

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