In the days following Greene County’s public hearing with the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, all they can do now is wait.

Commission Chair Jeff Lamberti tells Raccoon Valley Radio that the Commission will compare all the public comments that they heard at last Thursday’s public forum along with all the other data that they’ve collected and the two feasibility studies that they had done earlier this year.

He says in the end, it comes down to how each individual Commissioner feels is the right decision for the gambling industry in the state.“There is no magic formula for how we do it.  There’s not a lot of guidance in terms of what factor is more important than the other, that’s up to the individual member.  So that’s why it all becomes important because we try to weigh what we hear against those criteria but each member may decide that something is more important pr weighed more heavily than another Commissioner.”

In April, the Commission voted 4-1 to deny a gaming license to Cedar Rapids but before that, the Commission wanted to separate both applicants and Lamberti explains why they did that.

“I made the decision pretty early on that I thought it was going to be better to separate them.  I think it was a good decision.  And I think it gives both applicants, the full opportunity to present to the Commissioners.  We all have jobs or other things going on in life and we want people to have the ability to talk to us and to get to us and have their point-of-view heard.  And if we were going to put them together, I think it was going to shorten the process too much.”

Should the casino be approved, Wild Rose Entertainment Chief Operating Officer Tom Timmons says they will been able to start construction later this month with plans to have it fully operational by July 2015.

The final decision will be made on Thursday, June 12th at Catfish Bend Casino in Burlington, Iowa.