One of the proposals to make Indiana casinos more competitive would be to allow them to move on land.
The likely gatekeeper for bills to help Indiana’s casinos has not said what he will do with those bills, but he’s indicating sympathy with two of the most prominent proposals.
Indiana state Rep. Tom Dermody, chairman of the House Public Policy Committee, said the state needs to consider ways to help casinos compete with those across the state line in Michigan and Ohio. “Everybody, even those who have come to me and said they don’t want gaming expansion, still want local dollars coming back to them and fulfilling school funding and so forth, so everybody is going to have to look at themselves in the mirror and say, what’s right for Indiana?” Dermody said.
Dermody said any casino bill that seems to expand gambling would not have a chance to pass, since Governor Mike Pence, House Speaker Brian Bosma and Senate President Pro Tem David Long all have expressed opposition to that. However, Pence has been reluctant to define “expansion,” and recently he said allowing live dealers and moving casinos from water to land cannot be considered expansions of gambling.
Specifically, racinos in Anderson and Shelby County are pushing to replace computerized versions of blackjack and craps with live dealers. And Majestic Star Casinos in Gary want to move their operations off Lake Michigan to the harbor front. Dermody chaired a summer study committee that endorsed both proposals, which previously have failed in the legislature.
