Developers of a Lyon County, Iowa casino are 'upping the ante.' This month they said the price tag for the casino that will sit on the border of South Dakota and Iowa, has jumped from 90 million dollars to 110 million. Some South Dakota casinos and businesses fear the project will take away their profits. But some Iowa residents say the revenue stream flows in both directions.

If you drive ten miles east of Sioux Falls you'll find a sign on the stateline that says 'Iowa, fields of opportunity.' 

"I think South Dakota can give a little bit back to Iowa," Larchwood, Iowa resident Nancy Kerkvliet said.

It's the opportunity developers of a multi-million casino see in a corn field on the stateline that has both sides of the border buzzing. 

"I just feel that Kehl made a decision to build a casino here, and I know he's targeting Sioux Falls, but it's business, that's what it's all about," Larchwood, Iowa resident Stan Stettnichs said.

With plans for a casino, hotel, and golf course moving forward, both Iowa residents and South Dakota businesses are trying to predict the economic impact of the project.

"For all the surrounding towns because we're going to benefit from the revenue that comes off the casino," Stettnichs said.

While the casino will be a new source of revenue for Lyon County Iowa, South Dakota casinos say it could take away their profits.

A study commissioned by the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, which operates Royal River Casino, found that South Dakotans will spend 55 million dollars at the new Iowa casino every year. That same study estimated that 72 percent of the visitors that will go to the Iowa casino every year will actually be from South Dakota.

They are visitors Sioux Falls businesses bank on every year.

"Anytime there's a competitor who bounces up in any direction it's a little click of the heels to us to say, 'Hey we have to step it up again because we have more competition'," Teri Ellis Schmidt with the Sioux Falls Convention and Visitors Bureau said.

Each year, more than 900-thousand South Dakotans are expected to visit the new Lyon County resort. The Sioux Falls Convention and Visitors Bureau says that could cut deeply into the 1.5 million visitors Sioux Falls sees annually.

"We might not want that to happen because we will lose then part of the entertainment dollar that is spent here. They will have the opportunity to go elsewhere," Schmidt said.

But while some businesses in Sioux Falls may see a casino in Iowa as direct competition, Larchwood residents say it's a two-way street. For decades they've already been spending money in Sioux Falls.

"I've lived in Larchwood all my life, and I worked in Sioux Falls for 30 years. So, over those years I have spent many many dollars up there," Kerkvliet said.

Even though Larchwood sits in a different state, Nancy Kerkvliet says that Larchwood residents travel to Sioux Falls every day to work, shop, and play.

"I remember by mom and dad saying years ago that Larchwood is a bedroom city to Sioux Falls because people liver here, sleep here, and work there. The majority of people around Larchwood work in Sioux Falls and I think stop on their way home from work and do a lot of value shopping up there," Kerkvliet said.

The Sioux Falls Convention and Visitors Bureau says visitors spent more than 200-million dollars in Sioux Falls last year and losing even some of that would hurt the economy.

"It would devastate our community. If nobody from outside could come in and do business, not even from Brandon, or Kansas City, or Lennox, or New York, no one could come in, our hotels, the restaurants, the retail, the banks, everybody would have less business," Schmidt said.

It remains to be seen whether a casino in Iowa will be a compliment, or direct competition to commerce in Sioux Falls.

"So we have to be very very cognizant of being a good regional partner, but being at the same time very loyal and responsible to our own city," Schmidt said.

"I think it's a great deal. I was for it the whole time, and they had a vote and it passed. I think it's a good deal and I think it should go through," Stettnichs said. 

And while they are on opposite sides, both do agree on one thing--there is no doubt that a casino in an Iowa field of opportunity will have impact on both sides of the border.

The numbers from the study commissioned by the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe were based on a 90 million dollar casino. But the plans have been upgraded since then so the economic impact on South Dakota and Iowa could be bigger than originally thought.