Sixty-one thousand, three hundred ten voters in Allen County said no. Forty-one thousand, six hundred twenty-five said yes. That 59.6% rejection — a vote of 61,310 to 41,625 — is how Fort Wayne’s home county turned down Public Question No. 3 on Election Day, one of three county defeats that ended the push for a casino in northeast Indiana.
The other two counties followed. DeKalb County voted the measure down 64.6%, and Steuben County rejected it 58.7%, according to final unofficial results reported by wowo.com. Because all three counties said no, the Indiana Gaming Commission is now prohibited from awarding a license to any casino developer in the region — and under the law that put the question on the ballot, a county that votes against the measure may never hold a second referendum on it. It is locked in.
Three counties, one answer
| County | Vote against | Raw vote (Allen) |
|---|---|---|
| Allen | 59.6% | 61,310 to 41,625 |
| DeKalb | 64.6% | — |
| Steuben | 58.7% | — |
DeKalb County’s 64.6% rejection outpaced even Allen County’s margin. Yet Fort Wayne, the second-largest city in Indiana and the most attractive market for a developer, still delivered a clear defeat for the proposal.
The law that made this vote final
The referendum existed because of House Bill 1038, which Indiana lawmakers passed in February and Gov. Mike Braun signed in March. The bill authorized a casino in one of the three counties — but only if voters in that county approved it first. The original push came from Full House Resorts, which wanted to move its gaming license from the Rising Star casino to a more lucrative northeastern market. But as casino.org reported, lawmakers amended the bill to open bidding to any U.S. casino company and tacked on a $150 million licensing fee and a $500 million minimum investment. By the time the bill was signed, Full House CEO Daniel Lee said the math no longer worked.
Full House CEO Daniel Lee said Rising Star “makes money and we will continue to do that for our shareholders,” according to casino.org.
Fort Wayne Mayor Sharon Tucker and all three Allen County commissioners had written to state lawmakers in December backing a casino, and the Vote Yes for Allen political action committee argued the project would create thousands of jobs and millions in revenue without raising taxes.
Where the jobs numbers landed
A study commissioned by the Indiana Gaming Commission and completed by CBRE projected that a Fort Wayne casino would generate almost 1,000 permanent jobs, $28.1 million a year in local tax revenue, and another $13.1 million annually from food and beverage, hotel occupancy, and property taxes. Pro-casino ads rounded those figures up, citing more than 2,000 permanent jobs and about 5,500 construction jobs. The fine print told a smaller story: the CBRE report itself estimated only about 950 direct casino jobs in Allen County, just over 1,000 direct positions outside the county, and fewer than 2,500 of the construction jobs inside the county.
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Save Northeast Indiana, a grassroots coalition of residents, business owners, and faith leaders, argued on its website that the headline numbers never subtracted jobs lost when residents shifted spending away from local restaurants, hotels, and retailers. The group also pointed to an economic impact report from Kenosha County, Wisconsin, which found that violent crime in South Bend increased significantly in the first two years after the Four Winds South Bend casino opened.
Cathie Humbarger of the Coalition for a Better Allen County said in an interview with 21 Alive News that “we certainly don’t want to bring in a corrupt organization and depend on them for economic development” and “additionally, we do have a responsibility for those who have a tendency or a predilection to gaming addiction.”
What stays unchanged
Indiana’s gaming industry remains at 13 casinos. Through September, those properties generated $1.84 billion in gross gaming revenue from slots and table games, with oddsmakers reporting another $402.6 million, casino.org reported.
Because House Bill 1038 bars a second public question in any county that votes no, the $28.1 million in projected annual revenue, the roughly 950 direct jobs, and the construction boom will not be revisited unless the Indiana General Assembly writes a new law. Under current law, the 61,310 voters who said no in Allen County have the final word.
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