By AP/KWMU
East St. Louis, Ill. – A company from Kentucky is planning to buy the Casino Queen in East St. Louis.
The riverboat wasn't even for sale, but Columbia Sussex offered $200 million for it.
The sale of the casino and hotel still needs to be approved by the Illinois Gaming Board. They're meeting in Chicago next week.
Casino Queen co-owner and board president Jim Koman said the sale won't affect the company's eleven-hundred employees.
A spokeswoman said the deal also won't speed up Casino Queen's plans for a new $150 million facility east of the riverfront.
The new casino will be the state's first "boat in a moat" and will sit on a man-made moat to be built on the current casino's parking lot.
Construction is set to begin next week and could take up to 16 months.