Blue Chip Casino keeping pace with the times

The Northwest Indiana casino gambling landscape will undergo some dramatic changes during the next 12 months. Consider the following developments:

This August, the gigantic land-based Four Winds Casino Resort, a Native American development of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, will open in the far southern reaches of lower Michigan in the town of New Buffalo, just over the Indiana border and 70 miles or so due east of Chicago.

Last April, news broke that Las Vegas-based Ameristar Casinos Inc. will acquire Resorts East Chicago Hotel Casino with plans to pump $200 million into the property and expand the casino to 4,000 slot machines and 120 table games by 2010.

The new Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind. will open in the summer of 2008 with a $465 million facility.

Meanwhile, things aren't standing still at the Blue Chip Casino Hotel in Michigan City, Ind. The new Blue Chip gaming vessel with a spacious 65,000 square-foot casino, the largest in the greater Chicago market, has been open for more than a year and has proven to be a great success for the property's owner, Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming.

When I spoke with the Blue Chip's newly appointed vice president and general manager, Ted Bogich, a 19-year veteran of the casino industry, he revealed construction plans that are already underway will ensure the destination remains a viable force in the intensely competitive market.

"We're getting ready to take yet another step forward in the evolution of this property to a premier gaming destination in this area," Bogich said. "We're looking at taking it to another level with a pretty significant development that includes a 300-room, 22-story hotel. It's going to be a dramatic addition to Michigan City."

The new hotel, Bogich said, "will be at a level which is pretty consistent with our Borgata property in Atlantic City.

"We're also looking at a couple of other components that will be part of that expansion (including) entertainment and things that go beyond just the dining and the gaming."

All 184 rooms of the hotel complex were recently renovated, including a conversion of the eighth floor to suites. By the time the new hotel development opens in December 2008, the accommodations at Blue Chip will increase to nearly 500 rooms.

There's also room for expansion on the gaming vessel, but Bogich feels the existing casino space is sufficient for now.

"We do have the opportunity if we feel there is ever the need to expand and add some gaming one level below our current casino," he said. "We don't have immediate plans to expand to that area but it gives us the flexibility in the future, if we believe the demand is sufficient, for us to be able to do that."

In the face of increased competition and major capital investment on behalf of the owners of neighboring properties, Bogich remains confident about Blue Chip's future.

"We believe we have a beautiful casino that is competitive with anything that is going to be available in this region," he said, "and by augmenting that casino with an expanded hotel product and some of the other features that we're going to be adding to this property, we believe that we will remain highly competitive and a very desirable alternative for people seeking gaming and entertainment in this area."