Casino Gaming Bill Moves On As SEI Casino Execs Share Perspectives

Monday, April 1, 2019 at 10:06 AM

By Mike Perleberg @mikedup84

Senate Bill 552 passed the House Public Policy Committee last week, but must go through another committee before it reaches the full House.

(Indianapolis, Ind.) – Big changes have been made to the legislation which could bring about some of the most drastic changes in years for Indiana’s casino gaming industry.

The House Public Policy Committee voted 12-0 to pass Senate Bill 552 on Wednesday, March 27, but not before making major amendments to the bill. The bill is now bound for the House Ways and Means Committee, which may further alter the bill before it goes to the House floor.

SB 552 would allow for movement of the two existing casino licenses for Spectacle Entertainment’s two-boat Majestic Star Casino on Lake Michigan in Gary, Indiana. One license would stay in Lake County with a new, inland casino closer to a major expressway. The other license could be relocated to a casino in Terre Haute, the western Indiana city currently without one.

Under the amended bill, Spectacle Entertainment would be required to pay $100 million to the Indiana Gaming Commission and give up its second license – the license going to Terre Haute - in order to more its remaining Gary casino inland.

The second license for Vigo County would go up for bid among Indiana casino operators. After a bill narrowly failed last year giving Rising Star Casino owner Full House Resorts exclusivity to relocate some of its unused games from southeastern Indiana to Terre Haute, executives with the company have backed the idea of allowing casino companies to compete for the Terre Haute license.

“We support Senate Bill 552,” said Full House Resorts senior vice president Alex Stolyar in a previous meeting of the committee on March 20.

Stolyar said the company wanted to see more parity in the Terre Haute opportunity.

“We want the opportunity for Terre Haute. We are not saying it should go to us instead of Spectacle or any other operator. What we would like is a fair and open, competitive process so that Terre Haute, Vigo County, and Indiana get the best deal,” Stolyar posed to the committee.

Spectacle Entertainment has already proposed investing $300 million in a new Gary location and $150 million to build a casino in Terre Haute. Despite the proposed investment, they too would have to bid on the potential Terre Haute license under the revised bill.

Creating the competitive bid process would be up to the Indiana Gaming Commission.

The bill was also amended to remove a “hold harmless” provision guaranteeing other northern Indiana communities at least the same amount of their gaming tax revenue this year in the event a new Gary casino siphons away gamblers from casinos in Hammond, Michigan City, and East Chicago.

Lawmakers also restored a timeline on the introduction of live dealer table games at Indiana’s two horsetrack racinos in Anderson and Shelbyville. The first version of the bill would have advanced the date for racinos to welcome live table games this year, but the committee reinserted a starting date of January 1, 2021 – the date originally stated in 2015 gaming legislation.

Executives for Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg owner Penn National Gaming told the committee on March 20 that allowing live table games at the racinos would lead to a $7 million per year revenue loss in Lawrenceburg.

“About 15 percent of our table game market comes from the central Indiana area,” John Hammond, a lobbyist for Penn National Gaming, claimed regarding the Lawrenceburg riverboat.

As far as blanket changes for all Indiana casinos, the legislation would grant them the ability to offer more free play to gamblers. The cap on how many casino licenses a company can own would be removed.

SB 552 also establishes regulations for sports betting in Indiana – it is just one of the states looking to set up an operating framework for sports wagering following a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year.

An earlier version of the bill would have permitted Hoosiers to place bets using their mobile devices, but last week’s committee amendment removed that provision. The committee maintained that sports books would be located at riverboats, racinos, and satellite facilities, if a license holder pays initial and annual fees.

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