Published: July 03, 2009 01:37 pm      

Gambling issues could pop up in 2010 session in Indiana

Committee will make recommendations to lawmakers by Dec. 1

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana lawmakers worried about distractions during the special budget session kept gambling issues from creeping into negotiations. But the push to give racetracks a break and help struggling casinos could surface again this summer and in 2010.

The state budget that lawmakers approved Tuesday didn’t include perks for Indiana’s 13 casinos. But it did create a committee to study 17 gambling issues and come up recommendations by Dec. 1 for an industry that pays about $1 billion a year in local and state taxes.

Senate President Pro Tem David Long, a Republican from Fort Wayne, had said the committee would provide a comprehensive study on gaming while keeping diversions to a minimum during the budget-writing special session.

But for some lawmakers representing casino areas, the study isn’t enough.

Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, said she could have T-shirts made that said: “My legislator went to Indianapolis and all she brought back was a lousy study committee.”

“I still regret the fact that we weren’t able to do as much for my community,” Rogers said.

Officials in Gary want to relocate one of the city’s two riverboat casinos on Lake Michigan to another site in the county with hopes that it would generate more revenue. Plenty of other Indiana communities are also looking for help.

Fort Wayne’s mayor has suggested a citywide referendum to gauge interest in a possible casino. Indiana’s two horse-racing tracks in Shelbyville and Anderson say they borrowed too much money to pay the $250 million in state licensing fees that allowed them to get slot machines. The casino in French Lick, meanwhile, says it’s feeling the pinch of competition since the horse tracks got slot machines. And the Blue Chip casino in Michigan City says its business has dropped since a casino opened nearby — across the state line in Michigan — in 2007.

Mike Smith, president of the Casino Association of Indiana, said he hopes the study committee will sort through the issues and come up with legislation for 2010 that could make it past the Democrat-controlled House and Republican-led Senate.

“It will be an opportunity for legislators to really look in depth at some of these things,” Smith said. “It will be taking a look at the broad picture of gaming in Indiana and how we’re going to be in a position to be competitive.”

Indiana may face more competition from neighboring states. Kentucky and Ohio, for example, have been flirting with the idea of expanding gambling. The committee will look at out-of-state competition, along with taxes, requirements for casino riverboats to maintain marine navigation systems and other issues.

When Gov. Mitch Daniels was asked what he’d like to see come out of the committee, he said he would leave that up to legislators on the panel. But he said he was glad that gambling never made it into the special session.

“For all their money and all their lobbying, they got zip,” Daniels said of gambling interests. “I think that is appropriate.”