A Southern Indiana casino may soon find itself under the ownership of a federally reognized Native American tribe that runs casinos in North Carolina.
According to reports from both Casino.org and Smoky Mountain News, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians tribal council on Thursday approved a $280 million purchase of Caesars Southern Indiana, which is a 25-minute drive away from Louisville in Elizabeth.
Representatives from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and Caesars each declined to comment when reached by The Courier Journal by phone Wednesday.
There is no archived footage of the meeting Thursday or one on Dec. 15 where the matter had been discussed on the official government website of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
As a result of a $17.3 billion sale to Reno-based Eldorado Resorts, Caesars Entertainment must reach an agreement to sell the Southern Indiana casino by Dec. 31, according to Casino.org.
The deal comes after a notable few years for the casino. Previously known as Horseshoe Southern Indiana, a boat on the Ohio River that opened in 1998, Caesars Southern Indiana became a $90 million, 100,000-square-foot land-based casino in late 2019.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians owns two casinos in North Carolina. The tribe is a “sovereign nation, meaning it has its own laws, elections, government, institutions, and the like,” according to its official government website.
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Contact Ben Tobin at bjtobin@gannett.com and 502-377-5675 or follow on Twitter @Ben__Tobin.
