Nearly a year after the US Bureau of Indian Affairs approved the Ho-Chunk Nation’s Casino application for Beloit, Governor Evers has finally signed off, approving the process and clearing the way for the land deal that will ultimately lead to the project’s ground breaking.

The Beloit project is expected to create more than 1,500 long-term jobs in the casino-resort complex and more than 2,000 construction jobs.

The proposal now moves on to the next stages of the approval process. The Department of Interior must issue its final determination on whether to take the land into trust, and the Governor and the Ho-Chunk Nation must complete an amendment to the Nation’s gaming compact to address the new Beloit casino and related issues.

The complex would include one of the largest casinos in the state, a 300-room hotel with more than 45,000 square feet of meeting and convention space, and an approximately 40,000 square foot indoor waterpark.