Evansville Courier & Press staff and wire reports
INDIANAPOLIS - Bars and taverns in Indiana will be able to legally offer low-stakes paper gambling, under a bill Gov. Mitch Daniels signed into law Wednesday.
Daniels signed House Bill 1153, which legalizes paper gambling games such as pull-tabs, punchboards and tipboards.
Not-for-profit fraternal lodges, such as American Legions and Veteran of Foreign Warss, already can legally offer paper gambling games. But for-proft bars and taverns sought a change in the law this year, saying they needed parity in order to compete with the nonprofit lodges.
The Legislature passed House Bill 1153 last week and the deadline was approaching for the governor to sign it, veto it or allow the bill to become law without his signature.
In a statement, Daniels said that he "decided to accede and defer to the clear will of the people's representatives" and sign the bill into law. "Even with this legislation, the total amount of gambling activity and dollars wagered in these establishments will likely be lower going forward than it has been previously," Daniels said, noting that raids and other enforcement actions since 2007 have resulted in thousands of video gambling machines being removed from bars and taverns.
Pull tabs, which could cost no more than $1 each under the new law, are paper games that pay off when symbols underneath tab windows on the back sides of cards match winning combinations shown on the front sides. Other games would also be allowed, such as punchboards and tipboards. Only bars that primarily serve alcohol rather than food would be allowed to have the games.
Besides fees for obtaining licenses to offer the games, excise taxes on the ticket sales also would be collected. Lawmakers have estimated the games could generate more than $2 million in yearly tax revenue.
"Hoosiers believe in freedom, but also in personal responsibility in the exercise of our liberties. I sign this bill with misgivings and caution, and the hope that any Hoosiers who choose to risk their money in these games will do so responsibly and with extreme care," Daniels' statement said.
Opponents of the bill said it was yet another expansion of gambling in Indiana. "I do think we've gone too far," state Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, said. She noted that nearly every year, there's another push in the Legislature to expand gambling. "It's just gotten to the point where it's almost embarrassing," she said.