Four Winds Casino in South Bend, IN recently launched a slew of new gambling options for guests. In early August the casino started dealing blackjack, roulette, and other Class III games.
The move to offer blackjack games and more has been months in the making. Last year, the Indiana legislature approved a new gambling compact with the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi. The deal with the Four Winds Casino operator was signed into law earlier this year.
Class III Gambling
Class III gambling is what most guests expect when visiting a casino. This kind of gambling puts a player against a casino as opposed to playing against a computer:
“When you play a Class III game, the outcome is you against the game. It’s one-on-one,” Four Winds Chief Operating Officer Frank Freedman said. “Class II gaming, you need more participants. You’re on a server and it’s basically a bingo algorithm that gets converted into the game math.”
Freedman continued by saying “I think it continues to help legitimize the facility as a world-class facility because we have more games to offer for our guests.”
Frankly, he’s right. Gamblers who visit major casino markets like Las Vegas expect to see the same at their local casino. The addition of blackjack puts Four Winds Casino a little closer to that category.
Four Winds Casino Expansion
There are 16 table games available for play at Four Winds Casino right now. The casino will be renovated to make space for the new table games and slot machines. Four Winds Casino is adding 40,000 square feet of gaming space. The expanded gaming area is on schedule to open this fall.
Next year Four Winds Casino will also have a 23-story hotel tower that will offer a spa, lounge, convention area, and meeting spaces.
You can’t say the expansion of Four Winds Casino is all happening because of the addition of blackjack games, but you can’t say it isn’t.
Blackjack blowing up in Indiana
In late 2019, Indiana announced it would allow racinos to offer traditional blackjack games. Two Caesars casinos – Harrah’s Hoosier Park in Anderson, IN and Indiana Grand in Shelbyville, IN – jumped at the opportunity to offer traditional blackjack games.
Indiana casinos must pay 3:2 when a player is dealt a natural blackjack. Casinos have the option to offer the following:
- Double down
- Insurance
- Even money
- Splitting pairs
- Surrender
The Indiana Gaming Commission allows its casinos to deal a fair game for players and casino operators. The individual properties can adjust however they’d like within the rules. The IN blackjack games will never be awful since casinos cannot reduce blackjack payout to 6:5. You can see a full list of Indiana blackjack rules here.
