House endorses gambling bill

INDIANAPOLIS -- Two House committees endorsed bills Wednesday that would expand gambling in Indiana, including one that would allow the state's two horse tracks to install slot-like machines at four sites.\nThe House Public Policy, Ethics and Veterans Affairs Committee voted 9-4 in favor of the bill, which now goes to the budget-writing House Ways and Means Committee for consideration.\nSupporters have said the bill is crucial to ensuring that horse racing remains a viable industry in Indiana.\n"It seems to be the only way to protect and expand the horse racing industry in this state," Democratic Rep. Markt Lytle of Madison, chairman of the committee, said after the vote.\nThe bill would allow for 750 pull-tab machines at Hoosier Park in Anderson and Indiana Downs in Shelby County and another 1,500 machines at two off-track betting parlors in Indianapolis and Fort Wayne.\nLicenses for betting parlors in Merrillville and Evansville would remain in effect, but those sites would not have pull-tab machines.\nThe bill's sponsor, Rep. Scott Reske, D-Pendleton, estimated each machine would produce $265 per day. Under that estimate, gamblers would have to lose more than $435 million each year to make the following revenue projections possible:\n--$87 million to the state, which includes a $27 million subsidy for horse tracks from riverboat casinos that would revert to the state.\n--$60 million to a revenue-sharing fund for counties that do not have gambling.\n--$60 million for purses and breed development.\n--$8 million each to the localities where the horse tracks are located.\n--$120 million each to Hoosier Park and Indiana Downs.\nThree Republicans and one Democrat voted against the bill as an unnecessary expansion of gambling.\n"We're the third-largest gaming state in the nation, and my guess is after this session we'll be second," said Rep. Cleo Duncan, R-Greensburg.\nDuncan said she will continue to vote against the bill until she feels comfortable that the industry is properly supervised.\nLast year, the same idea was packaged with a proposal to allow riverboat casinos to remain docked so customers could come and go freely. Only the dockside gambling provision survived the 2002 special session.\nThe House Ways and Means Committee also endorsed a bill Wednesday that would transfer a dormant casino license to a new historic-preservation district in southern Indiana's Orange County.\nThe district, which would cover French Lick and West Baden, then could open the casino on a yet-to-be constructed waterway between two historic hotels.\nThe bill has come close to passage several times in previous years. The past two years it has died in the waning days of the legislative session.\nIt now goes to the full House for consideration.\nThe House Public Policy, Ethics and Veterans Affairs Committee was expected to vote Thursday on another bill that would legalize electronic gambling machines in bars.