Law change eyed to help Indiana casinos compete

Indiana casinos could save an average of $1 million per riverboat each year under a proposal that would allow them to quit using captains and crews and maintain motors that have been obsolete since the state allowed the boats to remain docked.

A state lawmaker supporting the change says it would help keep the state's $1 billion casino industry competitive at a time when Indiana faces increasing competition from neighboring states for its gambling dollars.

"We want to do what we can to help our existing casinos compete without the expansion of gambling," said Sen. Ron Alting, R-Lafayette, the chairman of the Senate Public Policy Committee.

The proposal could mark the end of a key requirement of the 1993 law authorizing riverboat casinos in Indiana.

The original law, designed to bring economic development to poorer areas and to boost state coffers, required the boats to go on several daily cruises and to be self-propelled.

The state later approved a land-based casino at French Lick and allowed horse tracks in Anderson and Shelbyville to add slot machines. In 2002, lawmakers changed the law to allow the casinos to remain docked.

Alting's proposal to permit "permanently moored vessels" will allow state law to mirror reality, said Mike Smith, president of the Indiana Casino Association.

Smith said the change would also help reduce construction costs when casinos replace their existing vessels with barge-based structures.

Senate Tax Chairman Brandt Hershman, R-Monticello, said the bill would allow casinos to generate more money without expanding gambling.

"With the negative impact of gaming expansion in surrounding states, there will be a significant downward push in our revenues from casinos. Anything we can do to encourage the existing licensees to expand their investment in Indiana is healthy," said Hershman, who is co-sponsoring the measure.

A similar proposal passed the Senate last year but died in the Democrat-controlled House when lawmakers tried to add language to combine two Gary boats into one land-based operation and move a license to Fort Wayne, where there is currently no casino.

Republicans now control the House, and Assistant Republican Leader Eric Turner, R-Marion, said members could back measures intended to help the state's existing casino industry remain competitive so long as they don't include a gambling expansion.

"The risk is that once you start with a bill that's moving, then you're moving the Gary boat, you're adding a new facility in Fort Wayne, you're creating land-based casinos," Turner said. "Now you've got a big bill and you're not passing what you intended. That's the risk."

Alting has promised to withdraw the bill if any unrelated provisions are added.

 "I don't want to end up with a gambling bill that looks like a Christmas tree" with unrelated issues hanging all over it, Alting said. "If I do, I'll kill the bill."