The Indiana Public Policy Committee voted in favor of House Bill 1540, which is intended to help the state’s gambling industry. Last year, committee members rejected a similar proposal.
The bill, which was proposed by Rep. Tom Dermody (R-LaPorte), would allow Indiana’s ten riverboat casinos to move their operations to adjacent land. Furthermore, if it gets the nod, owners of already existing casinos will be given a tax credit to build hotels and other similar facilities on their properties. And last but not least, live dealers will be permitted in the state’s two racinos. At present, table games in those are run by computers.
Rep. Dermody explained that his bill is particularly important to the residents of Indiana as well as to its gambling industry, which is facing tough competition from neighboring states.
As mentioned above, back in 2014, the Senate Public Policy Committee refused to consider similar bill and sent it to a special study committee to review it before the beginning of the 2015 session.
Rep. Dermody’s bill will now be voted by another committee that would need to discuss the effects the proposal might have on Indiana’s budget, provided that it is passed into law. However, even if the General Assembly, the state’s legislature, votes in favor of the bill, it might not come into effect. This is due to the fact that Gov. Mike Pence is yet to express publicly his opinion on the bill and whether he considers it an expansion of the gambling industry, something that he has repeatedly stated he does not approve of.
Rep. Dermody explained that his bill aims at blunting the serious competition the state’s gambling industry is currently facing. Neighboring states have attracted considerable portion of Indiana’s customer base, which led to a decrease in gambling revenue. Rep. Dermody promised that the bill would reduce these negative effects and would create more jobs for the state’s residents.
The proposal has previously been reviewed by the House Ways and Means Committee, which added a provision that would have discarded the revenue-related agreement local communities had signed with owners of gambling venues on the territory of the state.
The above-mentioned committee also scrapped the admissions tax and other state payments casinos are now required to pay. Annually, the amount of $90 million is generated out of these taxes. The House, however, decided to remove those amendments, as some officials suggested that they might have negative effect on communities.
House Bill 1540 is now to be reviewed by the Senate Appropriations Committee and certain amendments are expected to be proposed.
