The Casino Queen is a riverboat casino located in East St. Louis, Illinois. The casino is owned and operated by CQ Holdings, Inc.
, which is a subsidiary of Pinnacle Entertainment. Pinnacle Entertainment is a publicly traded company that owns and operates several casinos and racing facilities in the United States.
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The Casino Queen was originally opened in 1991 by the late J.B. Pritzker, who was the patriarch of the Pritzker family. The Pritzker family is one of the wealthiest families in the United States, with an estimated net worth of $29 billion.
J. Pritzker passed away in 1999, and his son, Thomas J. Pritzker, took over as chairman and CEO of CQ Holdings.
In 2007, the Casino Queen was sold to a group of investors led by Bruce Rauner, who is now the current governor of Illinois. The sale price was $140 million.
Rauner and his investors put up $45 million of their own money and borrowed the remaining $95 million from a bank. The Casino Queen has been profitable every year since it was purchased by Rauner’s group, with the exception of 2009 when the recession caused a decrease in revenue.
The Casino Queen is currently the only riverboat casino in Illinois that is owned by an investor group rather than a gaming company. There are four other riverboat casinos in Illinois that are owned by gaming companies: Harrah’s Metropolis, Hollywood Casino Aurora, Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, and Grand Victoria Casino Elgin.
The majority of the employees at the Casino Queen are unionized through Unite Here Local 1. The union contract expires on June 30, 2019, and negotiations for a new contract are currently underway.
Who Owns the Casino Queen?
The Casino Queen is currently owned by an investor group led by Bruce Rauner, who is the governor of Illinois. The sale price for the casino was $140 million back in 2007, with Rauner and his investors putting up $45 million of their own money and borrowing the remaining $95 million from a bank.
