Council member hopes to bring gambling to Cedar Rapids

Cedar Rapids City Council member Justin Shields says it's time for the community to begin talking about bringing gambling here in preparation to vote on the issue in November 2011.

Cedar Rapids and the rest of Linn County are losing a sizable amount of revenue they could be taking in because residents leave town to gamble elsewhere, Shields said on Friday.

“You have to wonder how much longer can we just sit back and let all of our money be exported out into other communities,” Shields said.

Shields said he hopes to start a communitywide dialogue on the issue now so that the issues will be well aired before a November 2011 vote.

Counties in Iowa first must pass gambling referendums before they can try to make a case with the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission that a location in the county is a place for yet another Iowa gambling venue.

Voters in Linn County voted down the casino idea in November 2003 by a 53 to 47 percent margin, with the margin of defeat inside the city of Cedar Rapids, 51-49 percent.

At that time, a casino company proposed building a casino on the Cedar River at the Sinclair meatpacking site close to downtown Cedar Rapids.

At the time, too, state law required counties that voted down a gambling referendum to wait two years before another vote. In 2004, state law changed and it now requires a wait of eight years. That would allow Linn County to vote again on the issue in November 2011, both Shields and Jack Ketterer, administrator of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, said on Friday.

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