(Radio Iowa) – A five-year moratorium on new casinos in the state has stalled in the Iowa Senate. Senator Ken Rozenboom, chairman of the Senate State Government Committee, made the announcement late Tuesday afternoon. “The bill does not have enough support from Senate Republicans to advance all the way through the process,” Rozenboom said. The bill easily cleared the House last week — on a 68 to 31 vote. Rozenboom says a casino moratorium will not be considered in the Senate this year.

“We’re not going to keep getting bogged down on this issue,” Rozenboom says. “It’s obviously taken a lot of the oxygen out of the room. We’ve got other things to work on. Let’s work on those.” Rozenboom, a Republican from Oskaloosa, says he is no fan of gambling and his decision not to advance the legislation should not be interpreted as support for casino expansion.

“At the end of the day we do have a regulatory process and commission that deals with this and that’s not an unusual position for Senate Republicans to simply say: ‘Well, we have a process in place. Let’s just follow the process rather than micromanage them,'” Rozenboom says. On Thursday, the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission is scheduled to decide whether to issue a state license for a 275 MILLION dollar casino project in Cedar Rapids.

House backers of the casino moratorium were hoping it would quickly pass the Senate and the governor would sign it into law BEFORE the commission’s meeting. The bill does include a retroactive clause, so if it were passed later in the year — it would overrule the commission, if the panel approves the Cedar Rapids casino project. Rozenboom says it’s time to move on to other issues of critical importance to Iowans.

“Anybody that’s been here the last few weeks understands this has been a very difficult issue,” Rozenboom said. “I won’t say contentious because it’s not contentious in the normal ways. It’s not partisan.” In the past nine days, there have been three public hearings at the Iowa Capitol that drew supporters and opponents of the casino moratorium. Patty Koller is executive director of the Washington County Riverboat Foundation, the non-profit that holds the Riverside casino license. She spoke to lawmakers Tuesday.

“The second biggest city in Iowa is a big bully,” she said. “Riverside, my rural community, is being threatened. Every few years our livelihood is threatened. It needs to stop and only you, senators, can do it.” Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell asked legislators to ignore the casino industry’s pressure and let the Racing and Gaming Commission decide if her city gets a casino license. “It really does depend on the lens through which you view this,” O’Donnell said. “Bully is a word I’ve used, interestingly enough, but not to talk about my city, but others.” O’Donnell describes the casino as part of the city’s revival from the devastating floods that affected so many Cedar Rapids residents in 2008.

“It’s a $275 million economic development project that, yes, has a casino and so much more,” O’Donnell says. “…This is one of the most exciting opportunities that we’ve been able to bring to them for for relief.” Molly Grover of the Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce asked legislators to protect the cities that already have casinos from losing revenue to a Cedar Rapids casino. “Iowa’s oversaturated with casinos,” Grover said. “There’s communities all throughout the state that took the risk on the front, made those investments, and now that they’ve proven the model successful, other communities want to buy in.”

The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission rejected casino proposals for Cedar Rapids in 2014 and again 2017. Linn County voters approved another gambling referendum in 2021, setting the stage for this latest casino application.