French Lick Indiana
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French Lick Resort is a resort complex located in the towns of West Baden and French Lick, Indiana. The complex includes two historic resort spa hotels, stables, a casino and three golf courses.
The casino opened for business on November 3, 2006 after a gaming license originally intended for Patoka Lake was transferred to French Lick. Honoring state law allowing only water-based gaming, it was originally designed as a riverboat and surrounded by a small pond (commonly nicknamed the Boat in the Moat). In 2008 the moat was filled in and the casino boat was converted into the state's first land-based casino.
The casino features more than 1,300 slot machines, and table games including blackjack, craps, roulette, and poker. However, the French Lick property continues to lag Indiana's 10 other casinos in every significant category − including admissions, gross revenues and the average amount it wins from patrons at each slot machine and table game chair, state figures show[citation needed].
The location was originally known as the French Lick Springs Hotel, a grand resort that catered to those who came to partake of the advertised healing properties of the town's sulfur springs. The first hotel was opened in 1845 by William A. Bowles and was an immediate success. The original hotel burned in 1897, but the resort was rebuilt on an even grander scale by new owner Thomas Taggart, mayor of Indianapolis and chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
The historic 243-room luxury West Baden Springs Hotel in the adjacent town a mile away is also part of the Casino Resort complex. The hotel was built in 1902 and held the title of the largest free-spanning dome in the world. It remained the largest dome in the United States until the Houston Astrodome opened in 1965. The hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, became a National Historic Landmark in 1987 and is an Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. In 2008 the West Baden Springs Hotel was cited by Condé Nast Traveler readers as one of the best mainland U.S. resorts.
A golf course known as the Hill Course was added in 1917 and was designed by Donald Ross. It hosted the 1924 PGA Championship won by Walter Hagen and also has hosted the 1959 and 1960 LPGA Championship and was the home of the Midwest Amateur from the 1930s through the 1950s. Pete Dye captured the 1957 Midwest Amateur on the course. In 2006-07 the course was restored to its original specifications in cooperation with the Donald Ross Society. The PGA will return to French Lick in June 2010 for the PGA Professional National Championship.
The Valley Links adjacent to the hotel and casino was originally designed as an 18-hole course by Tom Bendelow and has been altered to become a 9-hole course as a result of the casino construction.
A new course designed by Pete Dye has recently been completed. Mount Airie, Tom Taggart's 1928 Colonial-style home, located on the second highest point in the state has been purchased to serve as a guest house overlooking the course.
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