INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -
A new Statehouse push to allow Indiana’s riverboat casinos to move to
on-land sites and let the state’s horse track casinos have live dealers run
table games comes as supporters are more optimistic of success after several
years of failure.
The proposal aims
to help boost Indiana’s casinos after they’ve seen more big declines in
revenue in the face of growing competition from neighboring states.
Casino advocates,
however, still must overcome potential opposition from Republican Gov. Mike
Pence and some legislators if they perceive the proposals as an expansion of
gambling.
House Public Policy
Committee Chairman Tom Dermody said he believes the bill he’s sponsoring has
more support than what existed two years ago when many of the same changes
were proposed.
Dermody, R-LaPorte,
said a legislative study committee that he led after last year’s General
Assembly session hashed out many of the casino issues and that his bill is
largely based on that panel’s unanimous recommendations.
“I think we found
some opportunities that aren’t considered an expansion of gaming,” he said.
That hurdle might
need to be cleared if any major casino legislation is going to win approval.
Total state tax
revenues from Indiana’s 13 casinos fell by $99 million, or about 13 percent,
during the fiscal year ending June 30, according to Indiana Gaming
Commission reports. A December forecast of state revenue projected an
additional annual decline of some $56 million, or 12 percent, for the budget
year ending in June 2017.
Pence has
consistently said he isn’t seeking to scale back Indiana’s casino industry,
but doesn’t support any expansion. He hasn’t, however, detailed what he
considers an expansion.
Dermody’s bill
would allow the 10 riverboats along the Ohio River and Lake Michigan to
build on-land casinos on property adjacent to their current sites.
Such permission has
especially been sought by the casinos in Gary and Evansville, which maintain
that new land-based facilities would have better features and be more
convenient for visitors.
The proposal would
also allow the state’s two horse track casinos - Hoosier Park in Anderson
and Indiana Grand in Shelbyville - to have live dealers for table games such
as blackjack that are now run by computers.
Along with the
decline in revenues, the state’s casinos had their total number of
electronic and table games drop nearly 12 percent between 2010 and 2014,
according to state reports.
That decline is
among the reasons that the proposed changes won’t represent a gambling
expansion, said John Keeler, vice president and general counsel for Centaur
Gaming, which owns the Anderson and Shelbyville casinos.
Centaur officials
believe allowing live dealers would attract gamblers who are wary of games
run by computers and boost business.
“We don’t believe
that substituting a live person for a machine at what is now an electronic
table is an expansion,” Keeler said.
Republican House
Speaker Brian Bosma is among those leery of major changes concerning the
casinos, which have pumped billions of dollars into state coffers since they
first opened in the mid-1990s.
“I’m not willing to
mortgage our future further into the gaming abyss for a few dollars in the
bottom line,” Bosma said. “At the same time, we’re talking about a lot of
jobs throughout the state. I don’t look at the falling gaming revenues and
hit the panic button as some do.”
Lawmakers
representing areas with casinos argue that the Legislature needs to take
steps to protect the thousands of jobs in the industry, which also pays
millions of dollars a year in taxes to local governments.
Sen. Earline
Rogers, D-Gary, said the continued escalation of casino competition from
other states making the need for Indiana action more pressing - and she
doesn’t consider allowing the casinos to move from water onto land an
expansion of gambling.
“Casinos have
contributed to our economy for many years,” she said. “They should be
treated like any other business.”