A proposal allowing a new Indiana casino has cleared a major legislative hurdle.
House members voted 67-30 on Monday in favor of House Bill 1038, which would give four counties a chance at becoming the new home for the casino currently in the Ohio River city of Rising Sun.
Three Fort Wayne-area counties — Allen, DeKalb and Steuben — and eastern Indiana’s Wayne County could seek the casino.
There was limited discussion on the last bill of the day. The measure now moves to the Senate, where it will have to win approval by the end of February in order to become law.
The legislation follows release of a study by the Indiana Gaming Commission in October finding that Indianapolis was the top location for a casino relocation, followed by northeast Indiana.
While the Indianapolis region would bring the state more tax revenue, the study found it would also hurt the two casinos nearby in Shelbyville and Anderson that also have horse tracks and help support the horse racing industry. The Fort Wayne area was seen as more of an open market, impacting casinos in Ohio and Michigan.
Senate action stalled on similar bill
A Senate committee in December endorsed a bill that would have allowed Full House to relocate its casino to Allen County. That bill, however, did not come to a full Senate vote by deadline last week.
Republican Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray (R-Martinsville) said he expected the Senate will support allowing the casino relocation.
“There continues to be support, I think, building for the idea of some option to move a casino up into northeast Indiana,” Bray told reporters last week. “The study obviously shows that it would be profitable up there. So, I look optimistically at the movement of that bill.”
The bill endorsed Monday would require the company building the new casino to spend at least $500 million on the project within five years of the doors opening to gamblers.
The current Rising Star Casino — owned and operated by Las Vegas-based Full House Resorts — generates the least casino tax in the state and has seen revenues plummet since casinos opened in Ohio and gambling expanded in Kentucky.
Casino companies would bid for relocation
Full House has for several years sought permission to move the casino to a new location, but the revised bill would allow all operators of Indiana’s current 13 state-regulated casinos to submit proposals for the license transfer.
Among details of the proposal:
- The Indiana Gaming Commission would select the new casino operator by April 15, 2027.
- A city mayor and board of county commissioners would need to endorse any casino proposals for a site in their communities. The bill allows counties to hold a voter referendum on local support, but does not require such a step as has been previously called for on all casino projects.
- The company winning the project would pay a $50 million fee to the state over a five-year period.
- If Full House doesn’t obtain the transferred license, the winning company would have to pay the fair market value of the Rising Star Casino as determined by an independent consultant hired by the gaming commission.
Another provision calls for the new casino’s operator to pay a total of $30 million to the city of Rising Sun and Ohio County as compensation for their lost casino tax revenue.
Local officials, however, have argued that compensation level was inadequate as the city and county have averaged about $5 million in annual casino tax revenue in recent years. They have asked for the city and county to share a small percentage of the new casino’s revenue in perpetuity.