Open all day, every day, Ameristar Casino Hotel East Chicago has one of the largest selections of games in northwest Indiana, with more than 1,700 of the latest and most popular slots and video poker games and 65 table games. If you can’t find your favorite game here, it just may not exist! A mattahon 11-hour-plus final table came to a close with Jake Baumgartner defeating Jason Mangold heads-up to win the Heartland Poker Tour Main Event at Ameristar East Chicago for $206,114. Mangold earns $127,689 as runner-up in the 653-entry Labor Day Weekend tournament that pulled a prize pool of $940,320.
| Ameristar Casino Hotel East Chicago | |
|---|---|
The Win Star vessel hosts the casino (view from Lake Michigan) | |
| Location | East Chicago, Indiana |
| Address | 777 Ameristar Blvd |
| Opening date | April 18, 1997 |
| No. of rooms | 288 |
| Casino type | Riverboat |
| Owner | Gaming and Leisure Properties |
| Operating license holder | Penn National Gaming |
| Previous names | Showboat Mardi Gras Harrah's East Chicago Resorts East Chicago |
| Coordinates | 41°39′09″N87°26′10″W / 41.652467°N 87.436240°WCoordinates: 41°39′09″N87°26′10″W / 41.652467°N 87.436240°W |
| Website | ameristar.com/east-chicago |
Ameristar Casino Hotel East Chicago (formerly Showboat Mardi Gras Casino, Harrah's East Chicago, and Resorts East Chicago) is a riverboat casino in East Chicago, Indiana, docked at Indiana Harbor on Lake Michigan. It is owned by Gaming and Leisure Properties and operated by Penn National Gaming.
The property features a 56,000-square-foot casino that offers 1,900 slot machines including reels, video reels and video poker; more than 40 table games; a high limit gaming room that is on land adjacent to the riverboat; and a 288-room hotel.[1]
History[edit]
Showboat Mardi Gras Casino opened on April 18, 1997.[2] In 1998, Harrah's Entertainment bought Showboat, Inc. and renamed the property as Harrah's East Chicago. Harrah's later sold it to Resorts International Holdings, and the casino's name was changed, along with the street name to 777 Resort Blvd (similar to the addresses used for some Harrah’s branded casinos: 777 Harrah’s Blvd). It was later sold in 2007 to Ameristar Casinos and changed its name to Ameristar before the September 2008 deadline.[3][4][5]
In August 2013, the property became part of Pinnacle Entertainment when that company acquired Ameristar Casinos.[6][7] In April 2016, the property was sold to Gaming and Leisure Properties along with almost all of Pinnacle's real estate assets, and leased back to Pinnacle.[8][9]
In October 2018, Penn National Gaming acquired the property's operations as part of its acquisition of Pinnacle.[10]
Vessel[edit]
The Win Star is the vessel that hosts the casino. The vessel uses a diesel reduction propulsion system and has a length of 332.2 feet. The boat's gross tons is 2803.0 and net tons measures 1906.0. It was built in 1997 by Atlantic Marine, Inc.[11]
References[edit]
- ^'Fact_Sheet_East_Chicago'(PDF). Ameristar.com. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2012-06-02. Retrieved 2012-05-31.
- ^'Showboat casino opens with a bang'. Post-Tribune. Indiana: via HighBeam. May 21, 1997. Archived from the original on September 21, 2014. Retrieved 2012-05-13.(subscription required)
- ^John Grochowski (June 21, 1998). 'Showboat changes course'. Chicago Sun-Times.
- ^'Harrah's East Chicago casino is sold to Colony Capital'. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. September 2004. Retrieved 2008-06-22.[dead link]
- ^'AMERISTAR CASINOS' ACQUISITION OF RESORTS EAST CHICAGO' (Press release). Ameristar Casinos. September 13, 2007. Archived from the original on July 18, 2012. Retrieved 2008-06-22.
- ^Keith Benman (December 21, 2012). 'Ameristar Casino dealt to new owner in $869 million deal'. The Times of Northwest Indiana. Retrieved 2016-07-23.
- ^Howard Stutz (August 14, 2013). 'Pinnacle Entertainment completes $2.8 billion buyout of Ameristar Casinos'. Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2016-07-23.
- ^Andrew Steele (April 27, 2016). 'Judge allows Ameristar deal to proceed'. The Times of Northwest Indiana. Retrieved 2016-07-23.
- ^'Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc. completes the previously announced acquisition of the real estate assets of Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc' (Press release). Pinnacle Entertainment. April 28, 2016. Archived from the original on August 22, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
- ^Andrew Steele (October 16, 2018). 'Penn National completes acquisition of Ameristar-owner Pinnacle Entertainment'. The Times of Northwest Indiana. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
- ^'WINSTAR Boat Information'. BoatInfoWorld.com. Retrieved July 2, 2012.
Poker in Indiana
Special Events in Indiana
Live Poker Rooms in Indiana
- Ameristar Casino East Chicago (East Chicago, IN)
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Indiana Poker Information
Indiana’s poker tournaments are the gleaming gems of the state’s poker scene. The Highland Poker Tour stop in Belterra brings big names of the pro poker tournament circuit face-to-face with local players. Famous faces seen regularly in Indiana include WSOP main-event champion Greg Raymer and WSOP bracelet winner Adam Friedman. WSOP Circuit rings are also on offer at the Horseshoe Hammond, which brings an annual surge of cash to the area. More than $100,000 in first-place prize money is often on the table during these prestigious events. Although online poker is currently not part of the offering in Indiana, the state was the childhood home of Aaron “aejones” Jones, who is now established as one of the most fearsome live and online players in the world.
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