Increasingly, Indiana is betting on gambling.
Impending gambling expansion in the state would generate thousands of
jobs, hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue and profuse
economic development opportunities.
These financial realities seem to eclipse concerns that many Hoosiers
are feeding their meager disposable income into the state’s slot
machines.
We’re on the
cusp of a historic expansion of gambling in the state, and the Anderson
area is positioned to benefit significantly.
The General Assembly on Wednesday night passed House Bill 1015, which would allow Harrah’s Hoosier Park and the state’s other racino, Indiana Grand in Shelbyville, to add live-dealer table games at the start of 2020.
Previously, the two racinos were slated to add live dealers in 2021.
The operators of the racinos have lobbied for live dealers for years,
knowing the addition would increase wagering at both sites.
Other important components of the bill, which awaits Gov. Eric Holcomb’s signature, include the following:
• Hoosiers, age 21 and over, would be able to place legal wagers on pro
and college sports as early as Sept. 1. The bill allows for wagering
from Indiana casinos, off-track betting sites and mobile devices. The
state would charge a 9.5 percent tax on wagers.
• Owners of two Gary riverboat casinos would be allowed to move the casinos and build a new casino, for a $20 million fee, at an interstate site nearby. The other Gary riverboat would be replaced by a new casino in the Terre Haute area, if voters there approve a referendum.
• Subsidies would be provided to casino operators in East Chicago,
Hammond, Michigan City, Evansville and French Lick, all of which could
be harmed financially by the expansion of gambling elsewhere in the
state.
If all of this comes to pass, the state will have 12 casinos and two racinos.
Is it too much, and is the state betting too heavily on tax revenue from gambling?
That’s difficult to see clearly from the ground in Anderson, where the gambling engine, increasingly, drives the economy.