Indiana committee OKs dockside gambling bill

Chris Sundheim

Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2002 | 9:53 a.m.

INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indiana House committee endorsed legislation Tuesday that would permit the state's 10 riverboat casinos to remain permanently docked, but lawmakers have thrown out a proposal to allow larger casino barges.

The House Public Policy Committee voted 7-4 to pass the legislation and send it to the budget-writing Ways and Means Committee. The bill must clear Ways and Means to be eligible for a vote in the full House. The Senate approved its own version last month.

Last week, lawmakers considered language that would have permitted the Indiana Gaming Commission to authorize barge-based casinos, potentially creating much larger casinos that are not able to cruise on waterways.

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

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Markt Lytle, D-Madison, said some committee members were reluctant to support casino barges without more information.

"I don't think people understand the barge concept," Lytle told reporters after Tuesday's hearing. "That's a topic that has to have a lot more debate."

The legislation would allow riverboat casinos to remain moored, rather than making regularly scheduled cruises, allowing patrons to come and go as they wish. The casino industry has sought permission to conduct dockside operations to offer customers more convenience and compete more effectively with casinos in Illinois, where dockside gambling has been allowed since 1999.

The bill also would allow electronic pull-tabs -- devices 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. Each site could have no more than 500 pull-tab machines.

The legislation would also restrict riverboat casinos on Lake Michigan and the Ohio River to 2,880 electronic gambling machines. The number of card games would be unlimited.

The bill would also 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.

Rep. Jerry Denbo, D-French Lick, has long sought a way to create new development in the region. He says gambling is the only option to attract tourists and investors.