Ind. faces casino hit from Ohio, Ky. competition

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana could lose up to $250 million in casino tax revenue if proposed casinos are approved in Kentucky and Ohio and planned expansions are made in Michigan, a fiscal analyst told lawmakers Monday.

Some of those casinos are planned near casinos in Indiana that draw many customers from neighboring states. Indiana’s 13 casinos generate about $900 million a year in taxes.

“Gamblers will seek out casinos most accessible to them,” Jim Landers, an analyst with the Legislative Services Agency, told the legislative Gaming Study Committee. “We’re
likely to lose significant traffic.”

The LSA is the General Assembly’s nonpartisan research arm.

Ohio voters will decide in November whether to authorize casinos in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo. Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland fought successfully to include video lottery machines at horse tracks, some near Indiana, but the state Supreme Court ruled in a legal challenge to put the issue before voters.