Where the Riverboat Bingo Venue Sits, and How to Measure It

The Fixed Point You Are Measuring From

The Belterra Casino Riverboat property sits at 38.779174 latitude and -84.938484 longitude, a coordinate that places it in Indiana. The nearest documented straight-line reference point is Terre Haute at 139.3 miles, measured as the crow flies. That figure is a great-circle distance, not a road distance.

Road distance is always longer than straight-line distance. This article does not publish driving mileage, driving time, or any route instruction. A reader who needs a road number, an exit, or a turn-by-turn plan must get that from a mapping tool or the venue's own directions page, because none of those tokens are documented here.

What the Coordinate Tells You

A latitude of 38.779174 places the property in the lower-middle band of the continental United States, well south of the Great Lakes and north of the Gulf Coast. A longitude of -84.938484 places it west of the Appalachian spine and east of the Mississippi River. Together those two numbers fix the venue near the Indiana border region, where the Ohio River valley shapes the landscape.

The coordinate is documented at property precision, meaning it describes the venue's parcel rather than a city centroid or a parking lot corner. That is enough to anchor straight-line measurements reliably, but it does not describe the building's orientation, its entrance, or which side of the river it faces. Those are physical details a visitor confirms on arrival or from the venue's own site plan.

Straight-Line Distances to Documented Reference Points

The table below lists every reference point for which a great-circle distance is documented from this venue's coordinate. Every figure is straight-line; none of them is a road distance, and none of them implies a travel time.

Why Straight-Line and Road Distance Diverge

A great-circle distance is the shortest arc across the Earth's surface between two coordinates. It ignores everything that stands between them. The road network cannot do that.

Three forces stretch road distance beyond the straight-line figure. Terrain is the first: river valleys, ridges, and floodplains force roads onto longer contours. Water is the second: a straight line across a river only works if a bridge exists at that exact crossing, and bridges are spaced far apart. The third is the road network itself, which connects populated places rather than cutting directly across open land, and which crosses state lines only where highways were built to do so.

For this venue, the Ohio River valley is the dominant geographic feature. A straight-line measurement to a point on the far side of the river will always understate the road distance, because the driver must travel to a bridge, cross it, and then work back toward the destination. The same applies to any reference point separated by hills or by a state boundary with limited crossings.

Where the Venue Sits in Regional Terms

The coordinate places the property in Indiana, in the southern part of the state, near the border with Kentucky. The nearest documented reference point, Terre Haute, lies to the west-northwest at 139.3 straight-line miles. Chicago lies to the northwest at 256.9 straight-line miles, and Detroit to the northeast at 264.8 straight-line miles.

St. Louis sits to the west-southwest at 283.7 straight-line miles, and Pittsburgh to the east-northeast at 287.9 straight-line miles. Those bearings come directly from comparing the venue's coordinate with each reference point's documented position; they describe compass direction, not road direction, and not travel ease.

If You Are Measuring From Your Own Location

The venue's position is fixed. Your starting point is not, and no article can know it. If a search brought you here with the words "from me" or "near me," the correct move is to treat the venue's coordinate as the anchor and measure outward from your own position.

Take the venue's latitude and longitude, 38.779174 and -84.938484, and enter them into any mapping tool along with your own address or current location. The tool will return a road distance and a route. That is the number that matters for travel planning. The straight-line figures in the table above are useful for understanding relative position and for comparing how far the venue sits from major cities, but they are not the number you would put in a fuel budget.

If the specific city or town you are starting from is not in the table, this article cannot measure that pair. The table contains only the reference points for which a documented straight-line distance exists. For any other origin, use the coordinate method described above.

What to Confirm Before You Go

Several things about a visit change independently of the venue's fixed geography, and none of them are documented in this article. Confirm each one through the channel that holds the current answer.

• Road route and current road conditions: a mapping tool or the state department of transportation for the states you will cross.
• Operating hours and whether the bingo schedule matches the day you plan to arrive: the venue's own published hours page or a call to its guest services line.
• Parking, entry requirements, and any age or identification rules: the venue's guest information page, since these change and are not part of a coordinate.
• Whether the riverboat itself is the active gaming floor or a namesake building on the property: the venue's own site map or a call ahead, because the word "riverboat" describes a structure, not a schedule.

FAQ

Does the straight-line distance tell me how long the drive will take?

No. Straight-line distance is a geometric measurement between two coordinates and ignores roads, bridges, terrain, and state boundaries. Driving distance is always longer, and driving time depends on speed limits, traffic, and stops. This article publishes no driving times and no road mileage. Use a mapping tool with the venue's coordinate and your own starting point to get a route and a time estimate.

Why is the venue called a riverboat if it sits on land?

The name reflects the property's branding and its historical or architectural form, not its current physical status. A riverboat casino may be a vessel, a permanently moored structure, or a land-based building that carries the riverboat name. The coordinate documented here describes the property parcel. Whether the active gaming floor is on a boat or in an adjacent building is a detail to confirm with the venue directly.

What if my starting city is not in the distance table?

Then this article cannot state that specific straight-line distance, because only the pairs in the table are documented. You can still measure from your own location by entering the venue's coordinates, 38.779174 and -84.938484, into any mapping tool along with your address. The tool will return the road distance and route that apply to your trip.

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