Majestic Star Casino on the Gary lakefront
Indiana House asks $100 million to move Gary casinos off lakefront
Contributed By:The 411 News
Sen. Melton responds to action on SB 552; Rogers sees similarities to state's first casino legislation
Legislation approving a new home on land for the former Majestic Star Casinos, now owned by Spectacle Entertainment, roared out of the Indiana Senate with overwhelming approval at the end of February.
Now, nearly a month later, the Public Policy committee just ended the House’s first hearing on SB 552, giving it unanimous approval, 12-0, but with major changes.
State Senator Eddie Melton (D-Gary), an SB 552 co-sponsor said in a statement, “Although I don’t agree with the amendment that affects the Gary casino move adopted by the House Public Policy Committee, I remain hopeful that the House and the Senate will come to an agreement that addresses the concerns of both chambers when the bill undergoes the conference committee process.
The original bill out of the senate sought state approval to relocate Gary’s two casinos to land, open up sports betting to mobile devices, and permit live dealers at table games in racetrack casinos.
For Earline Rogers, the former state senator from Gary who helped initiate Indiana’s first riverboat gambling legislation that brought casinos to northwest Indiana and the rest of the state, the Public Policy Committee in the House was the one that worried her, “They are known to be anti-gaming. That the committee gave its approval to SB 552 bodes well.”
Public Policy didn’t make any killer amendments either and that was good, Rogers said.
The committee made some big asks though.
Amendments to the bill included Spectacle Entertainment’s payment of $100 million to the state for moving one of the boats further inland, possibly along the Borman Expressway in Gary.
Spectacle would also have to give up the license to the second gambling boat, turning it over to the Indiana Gaming Commission and bid on it competitively with other casino operators.
According to the TribStar, a newspaper serving Terre Haute, there was talk in the committee for Spectacle to pay $50 million for moving the second boat, “… but lawmakers said they’d leave that to the next House panel to take up the bill, the Ways and Means Committee.”
The original bill asked for the 2nd boat to be located in Vigo County, home to Spectacle’s owners – Terre Haute businessmen Greg Gibson and Rod Ratcliff.
The House committee also removed sports betting on mobile devices.
Rogers said the bill has a long way to go. It’s headed to the Ways and Means Committee next, where they’ll look at the legislation’s fiscal impact and make changes. Then the full House will have a chance to offer amendments. After that, the bill will go to a conference committee with legislators from the House and Senate to iron out the differences.
“I believe after the conference committee, it will be added to the budget bill. That’s what happened to the first casino legislation in 1993,” Rogers said.
With the General Assembly session ending in late April, there might not be enough time for the bill’s resolutions in the conference committee to be returned to each chamber for more discussions and voting.
A 2018 study commissioned by the state found that relocating one of the casinos off the lakefront in Gary to a location along the Borman could increase its revenues by as much as 30%. Gary has been aiming for such a move for nearly a decade and now sees an added bonus in the move.
That same study gave weight to the creation of an intermodal transportation hub at Buffington Harbor, where the two gambling boats are docked. Over the last 2-3 years, the city’s economic planners have pushed their ideas that the best uses for Buffington Harbor are in transportation and warehouse services, not gaming, because of its access to highways, rail, and air transportation.
But the Public Policy Committee did not call SB 66, associated with Gary’s intermodal hub and a companion to SB 552. That bill would have created a port authority board for Buffington Harbor and provided funding from the new casino revenues to help jumpstart the intermodal hub.
Story Posted:03/29/2019
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