Midwest casino follies

Indiana municipalities caught a break when the state House of Representatives voted against scrapping the state’s $3 admission tax, which goes to casino-hosting localities. That Dermodykeeps $200 million in the kitty of jurisdictions like LaPorte County, home to Boyd Gaming‘s Blue Chip riverboat. State Rep. Tom Dermody (R, right) vowed to revisit the issue in 2016. However, the House did pass a bill chockful of goodies for casinos, including permission to move on land, an extension of a tax cut on free play, tax incentives for new construction and live dealers for the state’s two racinos. The bill passed overwhelmingly, although it still faces the obstacle that is Gov. Mike Pence‘s veto pen. (The prospect of live dealers at the tracks is one of the aspects that sticks in Pence’s gubernatorial craw.) The bill must also survive one more vote by the full House.

In a peculiar flip-flop, the House initially amended the bill to remove the live table dealers, 96-1, then put them back in, 76-22. Hoping against hope, state Rep. Sean Eberhart (R) opined, “Hopefully the governor will say, ‘Hey, there is a lot of support for this, maybe I should give this a second look.’” (Pence’s apparent unconcern with competition from Ohio and Illinois is rather puzzling.) The governor’s position remained as clear as mud. He sent his spokeswoman out to reiterate his opposition to an undefined “expansion” of Hoosier State gambling. Kara Brooks added that Pence “does not want to advantage one sector of the gaming industry over another.” Since all Indiana casinos would have live table-game dealers under the law and could all theoretically operate on land, it’s difficult to see anybody getting the better end of a bill that levels the playing field.

* An attempt to create a third type of casino in Iowa (in addition to regular ones and tribal casinos) got a cursory, 15-minute discussion and no more from Hawkeye State lawmakers. The bill is essentially an attempt in drag by Cedar Rapids to get the state government to give SEAL_IOWAit the casino that the Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission wouldn’t let it have. “We see this as a unique way of getting around the Racing and Gaming Commission’s ruling,” said Frank Chiodo, a lobbyist for Riverside Casino & Golf Course, one of two casinos that fears heavy cannibalization from Cedar Rapids. The bill would remove the approval of the casinos from the IRGC’s purview and put them under the Iowa Clean Indoor Air Act.

Somewhat disingenuously, state Rep. Ken Rizer said, “I understand that the members of the committee don’t want to get into picking winners and losers when it comes to who gets casino licenses and that’s not what this bill is about. What this bill is about is exploring the opportunity to create another category of license.” Judging by the brevity of the hearing, committee members aren’t falling for that and, with both casino opponents and the Iowa Gaming Association opposed, the odds against it are long.

* Casinos in Illinois have to brace themselves for another assault from the Legislature. State Rep. Robert Rita (D) is filing a pair of bills that would bring at least five new casinos — Ritaincluding one or more in Chicago — plus as many as eight racinos to the Land of Lincoln. There’s some uncertainty as to how many goodies would be doled out to the horsey set because Fairmount Park and nearby Casino Queen can’t agree to let Fairmount play in Casino Queen’s back yard. Also, lawmakers are at odds about about how new tax revenues earmarked for Collinsville, East St. Louis and Alton would be divvied up. For example, one proposal would give Collinsville as little as 10%, while another would up its take to 45%. (Both proposals are drastically lopsided.)

We can brace ourselves for familiar arguments: Casinos will cite the existing predation of slot routes on their revenue base. Tracks will say they’re losing horsemen to other states with bigger purses. In the past, one could safely predict a legislative stalemate, but with Pat Quinn turned out of the governor’s mansion, there’s no sure thing anymore.

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