A casino resort beside a 1954 racetrack
Fonner Park first raced on April 29, 1954, on land donated by August L. “Gus” Fonner. It became Nebraska’s main track after Omaha’s Ak-Sar-Ben closed in 1995, and for decades it relied on racing, simulcasting and a keno room. The 2020 ballot measures changed that by allowing full casinos at the state’s licensed racetracks.
The Grand Island Casino Resort is the result. Built for about $185 million and operated by Elite Casino Resorts, it opened on April 10, 2025 at 700 East Stolley Park Road. It is one of the newer examples of the racetrack casino model described in what is a racino, where gaming revenue supports purses for the horses.
Inside the Grand Island Casino floor
The gaming floor opened with about 750 slot machines and 20 live table games, according to reporting on the April 2025 opening. That is a mid-sized floor by Midwestern standards, smaller than the two WarHorse casinos in the eastern part of the state but well above the temporary casino that Elite runs at Lake Mac in Ogallala.
Through the first seven months of 2026, the Grand Island Casino reported $38.5 million in gross gaming revenue to state regulators, third among Nebraska’s racetrack casinos. Under the 2020 measures most of the tax collected goes into the state’s property tax credit fund, with shares to the host city and county and smaller sums for problem gambling programs.
The Grand Island Casino resort and hotel
The resort side of the building has a 162-room hotel, a spa, a show lounge for live entertainment and several restaurants and bars. It was built as a destination for central Nebraska rather than a quick stop, and the hotel puts overnight guests within a short walk of both the gaming floor and the Fonner Park grandstand.
For racegoers the hotel changes how a trip works. Before 2025, the Fonner campus had no hotel of its own. Now a February or March race day can be paired with an evening on the floor and a room upstairs. Rates and room types are posted on the resort’s own booking pages.
Racing at Fonner Park
Fonner races on a five-eighths-mile dirt oval and runs Thoroughbreds only. Since 2010 the track has usually held 31 race days a year, and the 2026 meet followed that pattern, running from February 14 to May 2. Each card carries at least one race for Nebraska-bred horses, a rule written into state law to support local breeders.
The feature of the spring is the Gus Fonner Stakes at a mile and a sixteenth, worth $75,000. Fonner’s season is the first in the state, followed by Legacy Downs in Lincoln and Horsemen’s Park in Omaha. In February 2023 the track stopped sending its simulcast signal to other states, citing the federal Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority rules.
Getting there and staying around
Grand Island sits a few miles north of Interstate 80 in central Nebraska, and the resort is on the south side of town on Stolley Park Road. The Heartland Events Center, a city-owned arena of about 6,000 seats, shares the campus, and the Nebraska State Fair has used the grounds every summer since 2010.
Two other racinos are within a reasonable drive. Harrah’s Columbus Nebraska is about an hour north-east and runs its live meet in late summer on a one-mile track. To the west, Lake Mac Casino in Ogallala hosts quarter horse racing. Our horse racing schedule shows how the meets line up.
Before you go
The Grand Island Casino Resort follows Nebraska’s statewide rule that only adults aged 21 or older may gamble, and identification is checked. Deciding on a budget before the first spin, and taking breaks between races, keeps the visit manageable. The state helpline at 1-833-BETOVER is free, confidential and staffed around the clock.