State Senator Ken Rozenboom wrote in his newsletter this week that he decided to ultimately halt moving a bill that would have placed a five-year moratorium on casinos in Iowa ahead of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission’s approval of a new facility in Cedar Rapids.

Rozenboom said as chair of the Senate State Government Committee, it fell to him to manage the direction of the legislation.

“These are difficult decisions for me because of my dislike for the very significant gambling activities in Iowa,” he said.

Rozenboom said there was not enough support in the senate to legislatively block the Iowa Gaming and Racing Commission and deny or significantly delay the Cedar River Crossing project in Cedar Rapids.

He made the following announcement at the 4:00 pm Tuesday State Government committee meeting:

“Today, I chose not to bring forward HF144 in committee. I am no fan of gambling and my decision not to advance this legislation should not be considered in support of casino expansion. According to my conversations, this bill did not have enough support from Senate Republicans to advance all the way through the Senate process. In the interest of moving this session forward to other issues of critical importance to Iowans, I have no plans to reconsider the legislation for the remainder of this session.”

The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission voted Thursday morning to approve the application for a casino in Cedar Rapids. The vote was split at 4-1. The commission members discussed market saturation, product differentiation, market shift, and a projected $4 million net gain for the state in revenue.

The Iowa House passed a moratorium a few weeks ago in an effort to block the project, citing concerns over market cannibalization of other casinos in eastern Iowa.