If someone wants to “split hairs,” Spellman is ready to explain how the Ameristar complies with that language.
The language of Amendment 4, the 1990 ballot initiative that proposed allowing legal gaming in the old Colorado mining towns of Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek, was very specific regarding how structures where gaming was allowed should conform to “architectural styles and designs that were common to the areas prior to World War I.” The hotel tower, 34 floors high, stands taller than the surrounding mountains. It’s just incredible,” says Spellman, mayor of Black Hawk since 2006.
Thirty years, $315 million in state historic preservation grants and over $18 billion in Colorado casino revenue later, Mayor David Spellman gestures to the Ameristar, a massive hotel and casino in Black Hawk that exemplifies how much the town of approximately 100 residents has changed since the start of legal gaming in October 1991.
