Uncertainty surrounds how a proposal allowing a new Indiana casino will proceed in the Legislature.
A state Senate committee had discussions Wednesday over possible major shakeups to a House-endorsed bill authorizing transfer of the license for Indiana’s lowest-performing casino from the Ohio River city of Rising Sun.
The Senate Public Policy Committee, however, didn’t vote on any of those amendments before advancing the bill to another Senate panel for consideration.
Possible changes presented by Public Policy Committee Chair Ron Alting, R-Lafayette, would have created a new casino license rather than transferring the existing Rising Sun license.
Other proposed changes would have limited possible sites for the new casino to three Fort Wayne-area counties — Allen, DeKalb and Steuben — by striking eastern Indiana’s Wayne County from the list now in House Bill 1038, and require counties interested in landing the casino to hold referendums seeking voter agreement.
Alting said details of the casino bill are “a discussion in progress” and that the Senate’s Republican leaders will be weighing in on changes.
For now the bill remains unchanged from what the House approved earlier this month. The legislation now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee, which faces a Feb. 19 deadline to advance it to the full Senate.
Fort Wayne or elsewhere?
Several community leaders from Richmond and Wayne County testified Wednesday about broad support for a casino pursuit.
Melissa Vance, president and CEO of the Wayne County Area Chamber of Commerce, pointed to a state-commissioned study released in October finding that the Richmond area was the third most-promising location for a new casino — behind downtown Indianapolis and the Fort Wayne area.
“We have pulled together … such a great coalition of people that are aligned,” she told the committee. “I am sure all of you know that that is not common, that everyone aligns and activates so quickly, and that just shows the passion and the interest.”
The bill would require the casino company submitting the project bid selected by the Indiana Gaming Commission to spend at least $500 million on the casino and amenities within five years of the doors opening to gamblers.
Several local officials from northeastern Indiana spoke in favor of a casino project in that area. But some Allen County residents objected, citing concerns ranging from increased gambling addiction and crime to whether property values near a casino would drop.
“Not a single elected official campaigned on bringing a casino to the area, and there’s been no local public push, nor grassroots movement from constituents, for a casino,” said Kristen Bissontz of the Coalition for a Better Allen County.
Senate must weigh in soon
It is unclear what details of a casino bill could pass the Senate this session as a version that Alting’s committee endorsed in December never reached the full Senate before a late-January deadline.
Alting said Wednesday he expected the Senate will approve a casino bill, but wasn’t sure on its specifics.
The casino in Rising Sun generates about $42 million a year in gross revenue and paid $3.6 million in state gaming taxes last year. Last year’s study projected that an Allen County casino could generate $204 million in revenue and $61 million in annual state taxes.
Alting referenced concerns from Ohio County and Rising Sun officials about how the local governments could be compensated if the community lost the casino that is its largest employer and tax revenue source.
He also said he supported creating a new casino license and leaving the Rising Star Casino owned by Las Vegas-based Full House Resorts in place.
“That assures them that nothing’s going to be cut,” Alting told the Indiana Capital Chronicle. “It’ll be business as usual. They’ll be in whole. They won’t be left with vacant property, an empty casino, empty parking garages.”