Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) has made it pretty clear that there aren’t going to be any new casinos on his watch, just riverboats converted to onshore facilities. Try telling that to Full 
House Resorts CEO Dan Lee, however. The latter is pressing the flesh with Hoosier State legislators, as he continues to push for a second Full House casino, perhaps at the former Indianapolis International Airport. However, it sounds like Lee hasn’t learned the lessons that got him bounced from Pinnacle Entertainment. According to the Indianapolis Courier-Journal, “Lee’s brash style isn’t winning over many, if any, of the people who might be able to help him. And he has incited stiff opposition from competitors in the gambling business.” After all, why should Full House get what they can’t?
For his part, Lee wants a complete re-think of how Indiana deploys its casinos. “The state has found itself in an unusual position where a lot of its gaming capacity is in the wrong places. When it was legalized some 25 years ago in Indiana, it was done at all the border communities, designed to bring in revenue from Ohio and Illinois and Michigan and Kentucky, to some extent. All of those places [now] have their own casinos,” Lee argued. He has at least one key supporter in the state capital, Rep. Todd Huston (R), who is pitching a bill that would lift the state’s quota on casino licenses as well as the current restrictions on where they can be sited. While the legislation is sure to give Pence conniptions, don’t count Huston out yet.
As for Lee, he’s failing to cultivate relationships with key decision makers, like Senate Public Policy Committee Chairman Ron Alting (R, below), who made several rather frosty remarks. 
Of Lee’s Indianapolis push, he said, “That would have been the proper way to have done this, because the fact is that it would be the General Assembly that would issue that license and approve them. It was in my opinion not a very good business move.” Lee’s also taunted racino operator Centaur Gaming. He told investors, “We were sticking it in their eye a little bit to propose to put a casino at the airport … And of course Centaur just about crapped in their pants.” Not even Lee’s old boss, Steve Wynn, was ever that profane on an earnings call.
Centaur responded that “we would oppose the relocation of Rising Star machines to anywhere, whether it be Indianapolis or Connersville … If you were to permit Rising Star to do that, how would you stop Majestic Star from doing it, or how would you stop Centaur from doing it?” Lee accused Centaur of pulling strings in Indianapolis, saying, “It just tells me that their lobbyists were meeting with all the state legislators before we met with them and telling them to tell me that we didn’t have a tinker’s chance in hell,” quoting an oft-heard catchphrase.
That didn’t play well with Alting, who said,”I’m without words of understanding the philosophy behind [that] and particularly throwing jabs at people in the General Assembly that he’s probably going to need very badly to get what he needs done.” Indiana Gaming Insight Editor Ed Feigenbaum dismissed Lee as “a guy that they’re used to hearing over-the-top rhetoric from.” Centaur got in a shot of its own, noting Lee’s own admission that Rising Sun casino is struggling to break even: “I guess that’s not good enough right now, so he [wants] to change the rules of the game.” Feigenbaum predicts that while Lee may fail, another bigger, more politic company may make the same arguments and win. If so, Lee’s rage against the machine won’t have been for naught.
* Although it prevailed against Penn National Gaming in court, the Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission hasn’t fully extricated itself from the quagmire that was Argosy 
Sioux City. During the unpleasant breakdown in relations between Penn and Missouri River Historical Development, its nonprofit partner, Penn withheld $1.8 million from MHRD and the latter wants the IRGC to collect it for them. The picture is further clouded by a four-year-old lawsuit in which Penn accused MHRD of breach of contract, alleging that it was playing footsie with other casino developers while still in partnership with Penn. MHRD, meanwhile, is suing Penn for tortious interference, claiming it tried to intimidate other casino companies, possibly nixing a more remunerative partnership in the process. The IRGC will decide whether or not to get involved at its July meeting.
* Speaking of nonprofits, they’re going to take a hit in New Hampshire with the imminent cessation of charitable bingo, poker, etcetera at Rockingham Park racetrack. “That’s about half of our annual budget,” Greater Salem Caregivers Executive Director Richard O’Shaughnessy told the Eagle-Tribune. The racino will give way to a hotel-and-mall concept called Tuscan Village. The track went on the market this year after the Lege nixed a proposed, $650 million for-profit casino. Among the other charities that will be feeling the pinch is the Greater Salem Boys & Girls Club, which said somewhat incongruously, “From our Texas hold ’em, we raise about $55,000 a year.” It’s not often that you hear about at-risk children and Texas hold ’em in the same sentence.
