That Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission keeps going from the frying pan to the fire. Former Linn County attorney Gene Kopecky is suing the regulatory body for an unfair restraint of trade. His action is prompted 
by the denial of a license in Cedar Rapids due to fears of canibalization. That’s outside the IRGC’s purview, argues Kopecky, who contends that licenses are granted for an individual county not a specific site (a tenuous argument in this site-specific case). “Following possible appeals, the decision would not throw out the IRGC’s rejection of the Cedar Rapids casino project, but Kopecky hopes it would spur a group to re-apply.”
The IRGC did not help its case by promptly following up the Cedar Rapids denial with the approval of a casino for sparsely populated Jefferson — even though both would cannibalization. That was a boneheaded move bereft of intellectual consistency.
The IRGC can probably count on “friend of the court” briefs from Waterloo, Dubuque and Riverside, all of which felt threatened, some gravely so, by the Cedar Rapids proposal. However, casinos in Iowa are limited by statute, which strongly implies that the economic health of the industry must be taken into account when new competition is contemplated.
Since Kopecky’s lawsuit names at least competing casinos, it’s difficult to see how a “monopoly” is created by keeping one of out Cedar Rapids. As IRGC Chairman Jeff Lamberti said, “I’ll give him credit for creativity.”
* So long, Argosy Sioux City. It’s all over except for the death rattle of 
dice and roulette as the casino slumps to a Wednesday closing. The Iowa Supreme Court declined to hear Penn National Gaming‘s appeal of an IRGC closure, meaning that luck for the casino runs out on Aug. 30. She lasted a good deal longer than one would have thought, under the circumstances, but that’s the scant consolation to the employees who now find themselves out of work and have to hope for work at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino across town. Penn put up a valiant fight for you but it was ultimately for naught.
