Longtime Colorado casino caves to competition

Monday, Feb. 28, 2000 | 9:37 a.m.

Former Mayor Bill Lorenz, who resigned to open Otto's in 1991, said he and his family can no longer compete with large gambling halls being built on the south end of town with Las Vegas money.

The Sunday closing of the casino that Lorenz named after a best friend and three-time state legislator Otto Blake followed the closing of the Teller House on Friday. The gambling hall in neighboring Central City was operated by an international company with offices in Las Vegas.

"With the Teller House (closing) yesterday and me tomorrow there will be 90 casinos that have gone out of business," Lorenz said Saturday. "This is certainly not what the people voted for."

As former mayor, Lorenz was a member of the Central City organization that helped get limited-stakes gambling approved.

"I was one of the directors who worked my heart out and gave a lot of money and time," he said. "And now, the big boys are profiting from that."

He also charged competition for workers is also stiff with the large new casinos paying Las Vegas-type wages.

But Medill Barnes, director of the Black Hawk Casino Owners Association, said the casino's efforts to expand without proper financing were more responsible for the closing than neighbors were.

"All the big casinos wish the Lorenzes nothing but the best," he said. "We know that they were key to getting gambling in Colorado. We know that the last few years have been tough for them.

"But, there are little casinos that do make it, and they're right around them," he said. "The Eureka, Bull Durham and Ed and Shirley's Wild Card are good examples."

Lorenz acknowledged that efforts to expand got him into "deep do-do," but said there were other issues involved.

He complained that large casinos that cost between $75 million and $200 million to build do not resemble historic buildings from before 1914, as was the intent of legislation that legalized limited-stakes gambling.