Legislators consider gambling expansion

Chris Sundheim

Thursday, Feb. 14, 2002 | 9:45 a.m.

INDIANAPOLIS -- A proposal that could expand legalized gambling beyond the dockside casinos that were envisioned in an Indiana Senate bill is now before a House panel.

The House Public Policy Committee postponed a vote on the legislation Wednesday, but lawmakers heard more than two hours of testimony as Rep. Markt Lytle, D-Madison, offered a detailed 32-page amendment.

The amendment would allow the Indiana Gaming Commission to authorize barge-based casinos, but it would limit the number of slot machines and table games at each casino.

It also would allow electronic pull-tabs -- similar to slot machines -- at the pari-mutuel horse racing track in Anderson, another track built near Shelbyville, and two off-track betting parlors in Indianapolis. Marion County currently has one such parlor.

Before dockside operations could begin, lawmakers would have to pass legislation to tax pull-tabs and divide gambling revenue among the state's 92 counties.

It was unclear when lawmakers would return to the issue. Committee Chairman Rep. Robert Kuzman, D-Merrillville, did not say when the panel would meet again for a vote. He said committee members needed time to consider the legislation.

The Senate version of the bill would allow the state's casino boats on Lake Michigan and the Ohio River to remain permanently docked so patrons could come and go as they please, but it would not authorize barge operations.

Barges would allow casinos to conduct all of their gambling operations on one floor, similar to casinos in Las Vegas. Currently, the size restrictions of riverboats force casinos to spread out slot machines and card games over two or three floors.

Most of Wednesday's testimony was familiar, with lobbyists from the horse racing industry and other pro-gambling groups urging passage of the bill to stimulate their businesses and improve the state's economy.

Rep. Jerry Denbo asked the committee to endorse the bill because it would transfer a dormant riverboat casino license for Patoka Lake to a new historic-preservation district in Orange County that would include West Baden Springs and French Lick in south-central Indiana. Proceeds from a casino there would be used to restore and renovate two historic resort hotels in the preservation district.

Denbo, who has long sought a way to create new development in the region, said gambling is the only option to attract investors.

"Gambling is not my first choice," said Denbo, D-French Lick. "We have no intent to make French Lick a gambling mecca. We just want to fill up those hotels with tourists and have jobs."

A smaller number of critics spoke against the legislation, which they regard as an expansion of gambling.

"The question is whether dockside -- or flexible boarding, as the industry calls it -- is a semantic game designed to confuse," said John Wolf, a retired minister and coordinator of the Indiana Coalition Against Legalized Gambling. "If it were not expansion, why would dozens of highly paid lobbyists be patrolling these halls now?"