Northeast Iowa riverboat casino going dry with move to land location

One of Iowa's three remaining riverboat casinos will be coming ashore, its St. Louis-based owner announced Thursday.

Currently moored on the Mississippi River in Marquette, the Casino Queen Marquette has received approval from the Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission to move to a dry-land site at 100 Anti Monopoly Street in the scenic Driftless Region town, Queen Casino & Entertainment, the casino owner, said in a news release.

The company said it will add more than 12,000 square feet to an existing dockside building to accommodate the 17,000-square-foot casino, which will have more than 400 slot machines, two new blackjack tables and other games.

Also planned are new a new main entrance, dining areas and a sports bar, it said.

Iowa legalized riverboat gambling in 1991. Originally bets could only be a maximum of $5 and patrons' losses were limited to $200 a session. The boats also were required to periodically go on excursions. In 2004 the Iowa State Legislature voted to allow casinos to moor barges in man-made basins, eliminating the requirement that casinos had to be on boats.

After the Casino Queen moves onto land, the Lakeside Hotel Casino on West Lake in Osceola and the casino at Ameristar Casino Hotel in Council Bluffs will be Iowa's only remaining riverboat casinos.

Philip Joens covers retail, real estate and RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Dry-land casino to replace gambling boat in northeast Iowa's Lansing