Prairie Meadows history

The revenue from horse racing and dining at Prairie Meadows was not meeting expectations, and the property was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November of 1991.

That decision in 1994 has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in profits remaining in Iowa and Polk County – profits that would have left the state if an outside management firm had taken over day-to-day operations of Prairie Meadows.

On April 1, 1995, a capacity crowd of 15,000 poured through the doors of the nation’s first racino – a horse track and slot machine casino combination.

By December 1996, Prairie Meadows had paid off a total of $89.3 million in debt to Polk County, setting the stage for the gambling operation to become a cash cow for the county.

But Prairie Meadows found itself engulfed in a new controversy in 1997 when the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission threatened to revoke its state gambling license.

The expansion of racetrack gambling followed a lawsuit filed in 1998 challenging much higher state gambling tax rates imposed on racetrack casinos in comparison with tax rates for riverboat casinos.

The court battle reached the United States Supreme Court in 2003, when the high court reversed a ruling favoring Prairie Meadows and two other racetracks.

Prairie Meadows became a full-fledged casino in December 2004, when Iowa's racetracks were allowed to install table games, such as blackjack, craps and roulette.

The property expanded its entertainment offerings by adding the The Meadows Events Center in 2007.

You can say there has been some good things, but there's also been some personal tragedies," Branstad said in a 2009 interview.