ROCKFORD, Illinois — One year after launching its $300 million permanent casino, the Hard Rock Casino Rockford is looking to add a hotel and other amenities to defend its turf against the Ho-Chunk Nation, which is building a casino complex 18 miles away in Beloit, Wisconsin.

The casino border war could see millions of dollars in play across state lines in an escalating competition for customers when Ho-Chunk Gaming Beloit opens next summer. Both sides are preparing for battle.

“Everything’s on the table,” said Geno Iafrate, president of Hard Rock Casino Rockford. “It’s really about a thoughtful plan that allows us to stay ahead of the regional competition and make substantial, significant enhancements to our facility.”

Hard Rock Casino Rockford became one of Illinois’ busiest casinos when it opened its 175,000-square-foot facility Aug. 29, 2024, after nearly three years in temporary digs. The casino, on the site of the former Clock Tower Resort off Interstate Highway 90, includes nearly 1,300 slot machines, 50 live table games, a sportsbook and an expandable 2,100-seat concert venue.

Hard Rock Casino Rockford also has seven restaurants, but unlike several new casinos popping up in Illinois — and the one being built in Beloit — it has no hotel on site. That may soon change.

“We’ve always thought a hotel was important here,” Iafrate said. “We are fortunate that there’s quite a bit of hotel inventory right here on our exit, but we would love to control that experience and have our own product.”

Just up I-90, the Ho-Chunk Nation has broken ground on its $405 million Beloit project. The first phase is construction of a 240,000-square-foot casino slated to open in summer 2026. The second phase will add a conference center and an 18-story hotel, becoming the tallest building in Beloit, in 2027.

The Beloit casino has been in development for 15 years, long before Hard Rock Casino Rockford was even allowed by Illinois law.

“When Hard Rock was built, they knew we were coming,” said Jon Greendeer, president of the Ho-Chunk Nation, which has six casinos in Wisconsin. Beloit will be the seventh and potentially its last brick-and-mortar facility per a 1992 agreement with the state.

Hard Rock Casino Rockford was enabled by Illinois’ sweeping 2019 gambling expansion bill, which added everything from six new casinos and land-based gaming to sports betting. Despite its later start, Hard Rock got its permanent casino built two years ahead of Ho-Chunk Beloit’s projected opening.

The Ho-Chunk complex is being built on a 32-acre section of a former cornfield. Ho-Chunk secured the site in 2012 and it took a decade for the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to approve designating the land part of a gaming trust.

“Anyone that works for a tribal nation knows that when you work with a federal government to get things done, you’re not going to be in any position to race anybody,” Greendeer said.

Hard Rock Casino Rockford opened its temporary facility in November 2021, but it languished in the middle of the Illinois pack before opening its permanent casino.

This year, Hard Rock is No. 3 among the state’s 17 casinos with $85.7 million in adjusted gross receipts and 841,000 admissions through July, according to the latest data from the Illinois Gaming Board. That’s essentially double the pace of the temporary casino through eight months last year.

In the Chicago area, Hard Rock Casino Rockford draws mostly from the far northwest suburbs, Iafrate said. But the casino does get guests from the northern suburbs of Lake County, despite competition from American Place Casino, which is operating out of a temporary facility in Waukegan.

Hard Rock Casino Rockford also does well drawing customers from Wisconsin, including from as far away as Milwaukee, where the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino is located, Iafrate said.

Iafrate said Hard Rock is a “regional destination” with more than 40% of its customers coming from 30 miles away or farther.

Currently, the closest Illinois casino is Grand Victoria about 45 miles southeast in Elgin, while the closest Wisconsin casino is Ho-Chunk in Madison about 65 miles due north. That will change next year when Ho-Chunk opens in Beloit.

“A lot of our design and deliberate location is to draw from some of the higher income locations in northern Illinois,” Greendeer said.

The first target, however, will be the “local perimeter” in Illinois, including the Rockford market, he said. The plan is not only to lure customers, but also potential employees to the Beloit casino.

In addition to defending its turf against Ho-Chunk Beloit, Hard Rock Casino Rockford wants to stay competitive against Illinois casinos, most of which include hotels and expanded dining offerings.

Wind Creek Chicago Southland, which opened in November, is the second-busiest casino in the state behind perennial leader Rivers Casino Des Plaines.

During the first seven months of 2025, Wind Creek generated nearly $115 million in revenue and welcomed 1.3 million guests to its 70,000-square-foot casino and adjacent hotel in south suburban East Hazel Crest.

One of the state’s original riverboats, Hollywood Casino Joliet, opened a new $185 million land-based casino last month, which includes a 10,000-square-foot event center and several celebrity chef restaurants. A new $360 million entertainment complex for co-owned Hollywood Casino Aurora is slated to open next year with similar amenities and a 220-room hotel.

Bally’s Chicago, which has been operating a temporary casino at the Medinah Temple in River North since September 2023, has broken ground on its planned $1.7 billion entertainment complex that includes an exhibition hall, a 500-room hotel, a 3,000-seat theater, 10 restaurants and 4,000 gaming positions at the 30-acre site of the former Chicago Tribune printing plant.

The permanent Bally’s Chicago casino is expected to open by the fourth quarter of 2026.

“You’re seeing the evolution of casinos now in the state of Illinois,” Iafrate said. “You’re even seeing some of the legacy casinos adopt a less traditional riverboat model and more of an entertainment complex, with food, beverage, hotels — stuff beyond gambling.”

On Wednesday, Hard Rock Casino Rockford celebrated the one-year anniversary of its permanent casino with a party in the event center for its nearly 1,000 employees, with Rick Nielsen of Rockford’s hometown rock band Cheap Trick on hand to cut a cake.

Meanwhile, a few miles north along the Rock River in Wisconsin, a fallow cornfield is being tilled to give rise to Ho-Chunk’s 1,500 slot machines, 44 table games, a sportsbook and four restaurants.

Both Iafrate and Greendeer said the proximate casinos could potentially turn the Rockford-Beloit region into a mini-Las Vegas, growing the gambling market across state lines. And the construction race between Hard Rock and Ho-Chunk is very much back on, at least in terms of who can get a hotel off the ground first.

“We’d like to stay ahead of them,” Iafrate said.

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