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Colorado City Bets on Highway

COLORADO – As reported by USA Today: "Nearly a century and a half after prospectors first struck gold here, their descendants are digging for a new bonanza.

"But the potential mother lode this time isn't a mine. It's a four-lane highway that residents of Central City hope will be the divining rod that leads gamblers to this dusty casino town and not to the rival wagering halls in nearby Black Hawk.

"Crews have moved more than 14 million tons of dirt and rock for an 8½-mile road to bring more tourist traffic to Central City, a historic mining village whose Main Street gambling enterprises are poor neighbors to those in the more prosperous Black Hawk township.

"At stake is hundreds of millions more dollars in gambling revenue for whichever town is the quickest, most convenient drive out of Denver, 40 miles east of here.

"…Black Hawk's 21 casinos, some of them glitzy imitations of Las Vegas betting palaces, brought in $516.3 million last fiscal year. Central City's five casinos, mostly folksy storefronts, made less than one-tenth of that - $49.7 million.

"So Central City is building a $38.3 million bypass out its own back door and over the mountain to Interstate 70, a major expressway to the big city.

"With four lanes and turnpike speeds, the route will shave about 20 minutes or more off the trip from Denver. Town boosters are betting that thousands of players who drive the 'Central City Parkway' will stop in Central City first…"

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