Casino bill approved

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana House overwhelmingly approved a bill Thursday that would allow a casino in Orange County.\nThe bill passed on a 84-13 vote and now goes to the Senate for consideration. It faces a difficult future, though, as some Senate leaders are opposed to any expansion of legalized gambling.\nThe proposal would transfer a dormant riverboat casino license to a new historic-preservation district that would cover West Baden Springs and French Lick in southern Indiana.\nThe bill's sponsor, Democratic Rep. Jerry Denbo of French Lick, said the casino was needed to keep the economically depressed area from becoming a ghost town.\nDenbo and several lawmakers credited the bill's strong support to the dozens of Orange County residents who have come to the Statehouse for several sessions plugging the proposal.\nThe Democrat-controlled House backed a bill authorizing the casino last year, but it was rejected by the Republican-controlled Senate.\nSupporters have argued the bill meets the original intentions of legislators when they passed the 1993 law that legalized Indiana's 10 riverboat casinos -- five each of Lake Michigan and the Ohio River.\nBut an 11th license for Patoka Lake remains dormant because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the lake just south of French Lick, has refused to allow the casino.\nPlans are for the riverboat to operate on a yet-to-be constructed waterway between two historic hotels.