French Lick Resort Casino

French Lick Resort Casino Profile

French Lick Resort Casino is a resort and casino complex located in the town of French Lick, Indiana. The casino opened for business on November 3, 2006, but the resort’s history dates well before that.

The casino itself is located on a barge built to resemble a riverboat, which sits on piers in a lake adjacent to the hotel. The hotel itself closed for renovation a year before the casino opening, and reopened along with the casino.

The casino features more than 1,200 slot machines, and table games including blackjack, craps, roulette, and poker.

History

The location was originally known as the French Lick Springs Resort, a grand resort that catered to those who came to partake of the advertised healing properties of the town’s sulfur springs. The first hotel was opened in 1845 and was an immediate success. The original hotel burned in 1897, but the resort was rebuilt on an even grander scale by new owner Thomas Taggart, mayor of Indianapolis and chair of the Democratic National Committee. He convinced the Monon Railroad to build a spur directly to the hotel grounds with daily passenger service to Chicago. The rich and famous were guests during the heyday of the resort, including Franklin D. Roosevelt (who announced his candidacy for president at the 1931 national Governors conference there), Ronald Reagan and numerous others. Casino gambling, though technically illegal, flourished near the resort (but not at the resort proper). A golf course was added, designed by Donald Ross; it hosted the 1924 PGA Championship.

The spring water known as Pluto Water was bottled at a plant across the street from the hotel for use on the property and for commercial distribution. Tomato juice is said to have been served for the first time at the hotel in 1917 when the chef Louis Perrin ran out of orange juice and needed an alternative.

The resort went into a steady decline with the Great Depression, enjoyed a brief revival during World War II, then went into decline again, particularly after the illegal casinos were shuttered in 1949. The property went through a procession of owners, some of whom attempted to return the resort to its former glory.

Revival in earnest came when, after considerable campaigning by local residents, Indiana gaming authorities finally awarded a long-promised license for a riverboat casino to the city. The new casino was a bit slow to get into the water, after businessman Donald Trump was granted the original operating license, only to have it withdrawn for a variety of reasons. The license was finally awarded to a partnership of business interests from within Indiana including billionaire Bill Cook.

The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is recognized as one of the Historic Hotels of America.

The West Baden Springs Hotel in the adjacent town a mile away is also part of the Casino Resort complex.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

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