By Victoria Ratliff
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS- A Gary riverboat casino would be allowed to move inland under a bill approved Wednesday by a House committee – but with a $100 million price tag.

That is one of the numerous provisions in Senate Bill 552, the giant gambling bill that was approved unanimously by the House Public Policy Committee. The amended bill covers an array of other gaming issues, including moving a second Gary casino license to the Terre Haute area and legalizing betting on sports, though not via phone or computer apps.

Under the amendment offered by committee chairman Rep. Ben Smaltz, R-Auburn, the Gary casino operator, Spectacle Gaming LLC, would have to pay a $100 million fee to repurchase the license they already have in order to operate at a new location near a northern Indiana interstate highway. Smaltz argued that gaming licenses are the property of the state, so if the location changes, a new fee to acquire it should be assessed.

The size of the fee shocked some committee members.

“To me it sounds like an address change,” said Rep. Vanessa Summers, D-Indianapolis. “It doesn’t necessarily sound like something that they should have to pay $100 million to do… Even for a rich person $100 million is kind of in the stratosphere.”

Gary is seeking to allow the casino to move inland in order to open up its port for economic development.

B.R. Lane, who represented Gary at the hearing, said later that the price tag “might have a chilling effect” on keeping businesses in Indiana. Gambling advocates here have kept an eye on Illinois, and the possibility of a casino being placed just west of Indiana’s border.

And John Keeler, a lobbyist for Spectacle, said that business already paid for the existing gaming licenses. Under the amended form of SB 552, they would have to pay again, plus lose one license to the Terre Haute area which would go up for bid.

“We do hope the license fee will be more reasonable, more business-friendly,” he said after the hearing.“It is a tremendous risk. One is the investment of $300 million in Gary (to build the new casino) and the other is the…potential competition from a Chicago casino.”

Rep. Sean Eberhart, R-Shelbyville, called for the fee to be eliminated altogether.

“To me, I think it should be a zero fee to move. I think it’s fair compensation. They’re taking a risk” by investing millions to relocate the casino, he said.

Eberhart, though, was most interested in another provision in the amendment. His community, Shelbyville, has one of two racinos in Indiana, along with Anderson, which combines horse racing and a casino. Those racinos, unlike other casinos in Indiana, do not have live table games, that use human dealers rather than video. A 2015 law allows them to get those live games in 2021, but the version of SB 552 which passed the Senate 38-1, moved those up to this year.

“The only reason Indiana Grand and Hoosier Park don’t have live table games now is because of Gov. (Mike) Pence and his threat to veto the entire gaming bill in 2015,” Eberhart said.

Also added to the bill Wednesday was an amendment by Rep. Edward Clere, R-New Albany, allowing veterans and fraternal organizations to participate in sports betting as long as the money only goes towards the organization. Clere said that since the bill already would legalize sports betting, a version benefiting charities also should be approved.

“I thought it would be an appropriate time to add this new opportunity so that they could conduct spots brackets or pool surrounded events,” he said.

Despite numerous questions from the committee, Clere’s amendment was adopted as Smaltz and House Ways and Means Co-Chairman Todd Huston, R-Fishers, both stressed that the bill is a work in progress and will be heading next to that budget-writing committee.

Smaltz said his amendment nixed the use of computers and mobile phones for sports betting because he was concerned that that could lead to every community having gambling. If someone could bet on a sporting event from their phone, it would be hard to argue that they couldn’t have black-jack and other casino games, he said.

Rep. Matt Lehman, R-Berne, said the bill does represent an “expansion of gaming” in Indiana.

“You don’t move boats from water to land and not call it an expansion,” he said.

He said the bill opens the door for other casinos to ask to move off the water and on to land. Sports betting and live dealers at racinos also expand gambling, Lehman said.

Yet he voted for the bill saying, “We’re here, we’re in. To use a gambling term, we’re all in. We’ve made this agreement and at the end of the day jobs, tax dollars” are dependent on the business.

FOOTNOTE: Victoria Ratliff is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news site powered by Franklin College journalism students.