Ho-Chunk Gaming Beloit Opens a $705 Million Border Bet

Ho-Chunk Gaming Beloit opened October 23, 2026, a $705 million casino 17 miles north of Hard Rock Casino Rockford. The first phase went live at 2 p.m. after a ribbon cutting and a mini powwow, with the 18-story hotel still in steel off Interstate 90.

The Ho-Chunk Nation is running this as a flagship, not a copy of its six other Wisconsin floors. It borrowed most of the money, opened before the rooms exist, and pointed the building at Illinois play.

1,300 Machines Opened With the Hotel Still Dark

The new floor at 777 Willowbrook Road launched with 1,300 slot machines and 33 table games, including blackjack, craps, roulette, baccarat, Texas Hold’em, three-card poker, Mississippi Stud, and Ultimate Texas Hold’em. The Nation’s own site still lists a fuller mix of 1,500 slot machines and 44 table games as the planned count, which is larger than what guests found on day one.

The casino is a 240,000-square-foot building on about 32 acres at Willowbrook and Colley roads, with direct access from I-39/I-90. It is the seventh Ho-Chunk Gaming site, joining Black River Falls, Tomah, Nekoosa, Wittenberg, Wisconsin Dells, and Madison. Milwaukee is about an hour north. Chicago is about 90 minutes southeast. Rockford is a short drive down the same interstate.

Steve Abangan, executive manager of Ho-Chunk Gaming Beloit, said the opening was the product of the people who built it. “We are proud to welcome guests to Ho-Chunk Gaming Beloit and to share this important milestone with the Beloit community,” Abangan said. “This grand opening reflects the vision, dedication, and teamwork that brought this project to life.”

Food is already part of the pitch, even with the steakhouse still dark. Draft Picks Pub House is a two-level sports bar with 16-foot by 18-foot screens on the west and north walls. Live Wire Lounge sits in the center of the floor with a raised stage. The Nation scheduled bands, DJs, a Neil Diamond tribute, mariachi, and roaming magicians through the October 23-25 opening weekend.

WHAT GUESTS CAN EAT NOW

• Draft Picks Pub House: A two-level sports bar already serving the floor, built around those wall-size screens.
• Food Truck Alley: Three kitchen windows branded Playin’ Chicken, Maskadores, and Bread Busterz.
• Live Wire Lounge: A center bar and stage running live music while slots and tables stay open around it.
• Still coming: The FYR steakhouse and Black River Coffee Shop were listed as opening soon, not on day one.

The property is staffed for a casino, not yet for a resort. Ho-Chunk said it has more than 600 employees now and wants about 1,500 once the hotel and conference center open in fall 2027. The doors run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which is the one piece of the full vision that did not wait on the tower.

The Land Fight Started in 1992

Beloit was once Ho-Chunk ground, a village the Nation calls Kečąk, or turtle, in the Ho-Chunk language. President Jon Greendeer told ICT that the tribe’s original territory ran to 10 million acres, and that the U.S. Army pushed Ho-Chunk communities west before people walked back to Wisconsin. “Just about every facility that we have is essentially off-reservation, but it is on our traditional homelands,” Greendeer said.

This site was supposed to be the Nation’s fourth casino, not its seventh. The land work began in 1992. Beloit voters approved a casino in 1999, and tribal leaders signed a local compact with the city and Rock County that year. The file then sat. The Nation bought about 32 acres around 2011 and started a federal trust transfer in 2012, a process Greendeer said took 10 years. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed a compact expansion in March 2021. The land went into trust in May 2022. Crews finally broke ground on October 25, 2024.

Greendeer has described the wait in the same hard language at more than one ceremony. “So we’ve been fighting 12-headed dragons for over 20 years to make this happen today,” he said at the opening. “I’m so happy to see all of our partners come together, like the cast of a Broadway play.” He has also said other tribes, federal agencies, local opponents, and critics inside the Nation all tried to stop the file.

HOW THE BELOIT FILE MOVED

1. 1992: The Nation starts the Beloit land effort under an agreement with Wisconsin.
2. 1999: Beloit voters approve a casino, and tribal leaders sign a compact with the city and Rock County.
3. 2012: After buying about 32 acres, the Nation files to put the land in federal trust.
4. March 2021: Gov. Tony Evers expands the Class III compact to cover Beloit.
5. May 2022: The site is taken into trust, giving the Nation jurisdiction for gaming.
6. October 25, 2024: Groundbreaking on a project then described as a $500 million resort.
7. September 26, 2025: KeyBanc closes the construction financing.
8. October 23, 2026: The casino opens; the hotel remains a 2027 job.

Vice President Lambert Cleveland Jr. tied the building back to services the Nation already runs from gaming, including health care, schools, elder programs, housing, and public safety. “What we build here should make life better for our people. Our nation knows how to keep going,” Cleveland said. “We’ve faced hardships. We’ve held our ground, and we’ve carried our way of life forward.” He added that Ho-Chunk people are from this river junction and do not plan to leave it.

Hard Rock Rockford Booked $146 Million in 2025

The wager is geographic. Hard Rock Casino Rockford, owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida and operated by 815 Entertainment LLC, sits 17 miles south at 7801 E. State St. It opened a temporary floor on November 8, 2021, and moved into a permanent building on August 29, 2024. Illinois has no tribal casinos of its own, so Beloit is now the closest Native-owned floor to that market.

The Illinois Gaming Board’s 2025 annual report gives Hard Rock $146,186,678 in 2025 gross receipts and 1,433,251 admissions over 365 days. Table games produced $20,268,850. Electronic machines produced $125,917,828. The board lists 67,000 square feet of gambling space and 921 employees. That total ranked third among Illinois’s 17 casinos, behind Rivers Casino in Des Plaines at $503,053,035 and Wind Creek Chicago Southland at $197,952,986.

Ho-Chunk has not been polite about the neighbor. At the October 2024 groundbreaking, Greendeer said the Nation did not come to share the interstate.

We’re not here to co-exist with Hard Rock. This is our market. We are great at gaming. We are No. 1 at gaming.

Jon Greendeer, President, Ho-Chunk Nation, at the October 2024 groundbreaking

Hard Rock Rockford President Geno Iafrate has answered in kind. “Everyone knows we have competition. New competition entering the market 18 miles north of us. We have to defend Hard Rock Casino Rockford,” Iafrate said. Hard Rock has since moved to add a hotel of about 200 to 225 rooms and conference space, aimed at late 2027, on a similar clock to Beloit’s tower. Until those rooms exist, both floors are asking day-trippers from Rockford, Beloit, Janesville, and the northern edge of the Chicago suburbs to pick a highway exit.

THE TWO FLOORS ON I-90

Beloit’s forecast sits in a wide band. Local officials have put annual net winnings at $150 million to $250 million once the floor is running. That is a target, not a count. Hard Rock already posted $146,186,678 in a single calendar year at a smaller gambling floor with a live concert room and a global brand. The Ho-Chunk bet is that a newer, larger Wisconsin building, tribal exclusivity on sports wagering inside the state, and a 312-room tower in 2027 can pull those Illinois cars across the line.

How Much Casino Revenue Goes to Beloit?

The compact sends 1.4 percent of gross gaming revenue to the City of Beloit, 0.6 percent to Rock County, and 5 percent to Wisconsin, with the state rate rising to 5.5 percent if annual revenue tops $350 million. Those cuts are why the city spent decades on the file and why the county is on the same page.

If the floor hits the low end of the $150 million to $250 million forecast, the math is simple. At $150 million, Wisconsin would take $7.5 million, Beloit $2.1 million, and Rock County $900,000. At $250 million, those cuts would be $12.5 million, $3.5 million, and $1.5 million. Nothing in the compact pays those sums until the drop boxes are counted.

WHO IS PAID UNDER THE COMPACT

• State of Wisconsin: 5 percent of annual gross gaming revenue, or 5.5 percent in any year the figure exceeds $350 million.
• City of Beloit: 1.4 percent of gross gaming revenue, the largest local share.
• Rock County: 0.6 percent of gross gaming revenue.
• Ho-Chunk Nation: The rest, which leaders say funds health care, education, housing, elder services, public safety, and more land purchases.

Bernice Twinn, chief financial officer of Ho-Chunk Gaming Beloit, framed the building as a balance-sheet event for the Nation and a payroll event for the city. “Ho-Chunk Gaming Beloit represents an important investment in our community and in the future of the Ho-Chunk Nation,” Twinn said. “We are pleased to open our doors and provide a welcoming destination that supports employment, economic development, and long-term financial stability.”

Greendeer put the same point in local terms. “We are going to have one of the largest economic impacts in Rock County, in the city of Beloit and in the Ho-Chunk Nation,” he said. Celestino Ruffini, chief executive of Visit Beloit, said Rock County already has about 3,700 people in travel and tourism work, and that adding 1,500 jobs under one roof would be a jolt the county has not seen in years. Ho-Chunk has about 7,800 citizens and trust land in 14 Wisconsin counties, so a border floor that works is also a per-capita event for a small nation.

The construction payroll was local by design, Greendeer told ICT. “When you walk in and you cross those welcome mats, or you see those beautiful plants, or you look at the nice manicured lawn, or you come into a nice plow. Those are all local jobs and local opportunities that we don’t hire out of state for.” He said the Nation looks for people in the area rather than shipping the work out.

KeyBanc Closed $610 Million in September 2025

The price tag is the other half of the wager. For years the Nation put the Beloit resort at $405 million. At the October 25, 2024, groundbreaking, Greendeer said $500 million. When KeyBanc Capital Markets closed the deal on September 26, 2025, the bank put the full project at $705 million.

THE MONEY BEHIND THE FLOOR

• Project cost: $705 million, per KeyBanc’s deal summary, covering the casino, garage, hotel, and conference center.
• Bank debt: $610 million senior secured credit facilities, split into a $305 million revolver and a $305 million delayed-draw term loan.
• Tribal equity: About $95 million, which with the $610 million loan equals the $705 million budget.
• Jobs at full build: About 1,500, which Ho-Chunk says would make it Beloit’s largest employer.

KeyBanc acted as left lead arranger, joint bookrunner, and administrative agent. The Ho-Chunk Nation Legislature authorized the package, and the Nation’s Department of Business is overseeing the gaming side. A delayed-draw term loan lets the borrower take money as bills come due, which matches a two-phase site where the hotel is still climbing. It also means interest starts following the draws that already paid for a casino that opened without rooms.

The original September 26, 2026, opening date slipped a month. The Nation confirmed October 23 only after local questions in late September, then held a tribal soft opening, a press walk-through, and a Beloit Community Day before the public hour at 2 p.m. The city warned drivers to avoid Willowbrook Road from October 18 through 25 and put up temporary stop signs and a southbound left-turn lane until a fuller road rebuild in 2028.

Fall 2027 and the Unfinished Tower

Photos from opening day still show an 18-floor hotel going up beside the new floor. The plan is 312 guest rooms, a rooftop lounge, a lobby bar, a pool, a spa, and a 2,000-seat conference center, all due in fall 2027. Until then, the Nation is selling a casino with a parking garage and a promise. Discover Wisconsin is already running a giveaway that puts the free night at Ironworks Hotel Beloit, a downtown property, because the tower on site cannot take a key yet.

That split clock is the bet in physical form. Hard Rock had a two-year head start in a permanent building, a 1,600-seat concert room, and a brand that needs no introduction on I-90. Ho-Chunk has a newer floor, a compact that pays the city next door, and a hotel that will be taller than anything between Chicago and Madison or Milwaukee if it opens on time. Both sides are now racing the same 2027 hospitality date.

Greendeer keeps saying the work is for people who already live here. “We are going to be networked so deeply into the community that, as far as the way people see us, we are going to be woven back into the community as we always should have been,” he said. The drop boxes will decide whether a $705 million, $610 million-debt casino, opened without a hotel 17 miles from a floor that already holds $146,186,678 a year, can make that true.