New proposals aimed at expanding gambling look to be a long shot

INDIANAPOLIS -- As long as there is time left in any legislative session, proposals to expand gambling in Indiana still have a shot of becoming reality.\nMany proponents of new gambling came into this session with high hopes, since the state could really use new tax revenue the wagering would generate. Many lawmakers want to erase the state's $645 million deficit and still steer new money to schools, universities and Medicaid, the program that helps pay health care costs for many of the state's neediest citizens.\nBut as of now, chances of new legalized gambling winning approval seem like a long shot at best.\nIndianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson wanted lawmakers to authorize slot-like machines at the state's two parimutuel horse tracks and an off-track betting parlor in Indianapolis. He wanted $46 million a year from the machines to help finance a new stadium for the NFL's Colts. His mantra has been "build it, or they will leave."\nThat proposal fell flat with some top lawmakers, including House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis. He said that creating a "downtown casino" in one of the most family-friendly cities in the Midwest was out of the question, and there was no chance it would pass.\nA House committee did consider plans that would authorize slot machines at the state's horse tracks in Anderson and Shelbyville. The proposal that received a vote did not specify that any of the revenue go directly to a Colts stadium, and it failed to pass the committee.\nHorse racing officials say slot machines or similar devices at their venues are needed to save the struggling industry, and they have tried to keep the idea alive.\nBut they took a major hit earlier this month when Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton, a Columbus Republican who has long opposed expanded gambling, declared that any legislation to put slots at horse racing venues was dead this session.\nHis declaration followed news that state Sen. Jeff Drozda, R-Westfield, had been hired by a casino company to do marketing work for one of its projects in Colorado. Garton said the perception about such business ties threatened the integrity of the Senate, and killing the slot issue was necessary to protect that integrity. Drozda has dropped his ties to the casino company project.\nSenate Republicans have since discussed at least two gambling proposals that could reap hundreds of millions of dollars for the state. One would not expand legalized gambling, it would simply bring the state an additional $75 million a year in casino tax revenue by taking it away from six of the state's seven counties with riverboat casinos.\nBut another floated idea would legalize and tax video gambling machines now operating illegally in hundreds of bars, social clubs and truck stops. Industry officials and lawmakers have estimated that there are 10,000 to 15,000 of the machines in Indiana.\nSenate Appropriations Chairman Robert Meeks, R-LaGrange, has long favored such a plan, saying the machines already are operating illegally with little enforcement and the state isn't getting a penny.\nLegalizing the machines could bring the state hundreds of millions of dollars, and besides, Meeks said, "It's not an expansion (of gambling), it's already there."\nBut Bosma all but shot that idea down last week, saying bars, restaurants and other venues that don't have the machines now would be pressured to get them to stay in business.\n"To try to sell the fact that 8,000 new regulated locations and 40,000 new state-operated video lottery machines is not some sort of expanded gambling is absurd," Bosma said. "And I've indicated to the governor and the Senate that from my perspective and our caucus perspective, that idea doesn't have legs"