ANDERSON — Josh Jones was playing blackjack by himself inside Hoosier Park Racing & Casino on Thursday morning. Just him. No cards, no other gamblers sitting in the seats next to him and no dealer advising him whether to hit or stay.
Well, no live dealer anyway.
Throughout the casino, the story was the same. Beyond the blackjack tables with their automated screens showing cards, there was a roulette wheel that no one can spin. There are poker tables with real chips but electronic cards, and craps games where players hit a button to throw imaginary dice that pop up on a TV screen.
Snake eyes seem even more cruel when a player can’t really throw the dice.
For all of the 19 table games that Hoosier Park has, there isn’t one human dealer, thanks to Indiana state law prohibiting gaming on land anywhere other than French Lick.
The closest thing Jones has is a digital gentleman who speaks to him in prerecorded phrases such as “place your bets” or “sorry, better luck next time.”
Jones, who lives in Muncie, said he would prefer playing with a live dealer.
“I like to actually feel and see the cards,” Jones said. “This is all right, but it doesn’t seem totally fair in my opinion.”
Jones said he has played at casinos with live dealers and prefers that interplay.
Up until a week ago, Indiana’s two racetrack casinos, Hoosier Park and Indiana Grand Racing & Casino in Shelbyville, both owned by Centaur Gaming, thought they were going to get live dealers once House Bill 1540 passed the Indiana General Assembly.
Last week, an amendment was added by the Senate Appropriations Committee saying the racinos couldn’t have live dealers until 2021. The bill, as amended, was approved by the Senate 36-13 on Thursday.
“We’re very disappointed in this latest development,” said Jim Brown, president and COO of Centuar. “It seemed like the goal of the summer study committee last year was to help all of the casinos in light of the new competition. This bill now provides something for everyone except the racetrack casinos.”
The bill allows the state’s riverboat casinos to build on land inside of their existing footprint and bring gaming off of the boat. It also provides special exceptions for French Lick Casino, including new tax breaks. Brown said the main competitive advantage for the racinos was going to be the live dealers, which were included in the version of HB 1540 the House passed.
John Keeler, Centaur’s vice president and general counsel, said he had not been offered a solid reason explaining why live dealers at racinos was pushed back five years.
“I don’t think anyone explained exactly why this amendment went in,” Keeler said. “My speculation is there was a fear if the racinos got live dealers, it would hurt Rising Star (in southeastern Indiana) and the other casinos in that region.”
Brown said the dealers might have been moved back because of a fear it would have been viewed as an expansion of gaming. Gov. Mike Pence, who has not said publicly whether he will sign the bill, has noted he is against any expansion of gaming. He has not offered a definition of “expansion.”
If the bill is signed, it will allow for live table games at current land-based sites if the riverboats decide to build facilities on land.
Brown has contended since the gaming summer study committee report in September that switching out a computer chip for a human dealer shouldn’t be considered an expansion. If anything, he said, it should be looked at as a way to create jobs.
Sen. Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, said on Thursday he too was disappointed the racinos weren’t getting live dealers until 2021.
"This was really the only part of the bill that created jobs,” Lanane said. “I’m glad the riverboats are getting help and I’m glad French Lick is getting help, but it seems to me all the racinos are getting is a promise five years from now.”
When the summer study committee was first thinking about allowing Centaur to add live dealers to table games, Brown estimated it could create about 400 new jobs between the two racinos. That number would have been slightly smaller after the House put a restriction on the number of table games that could convert to live games.
Lanane and Sen. Doug Eckerty, R-Yorktown, who represents part of Madison County, both voted for HB 1540.
“It’s tough for me to vote for this bill,” Lanane said. “But I am going to vote for it because I think it’s good for the state as a whole.”
Without the immediate arrival of live dealers, Brown said he feels like the racinos are getting left out.
“The purpose in the creation of this bill was to help the whole industry become more competitive,” he said. “Live tables were the one thing we could have done to create a competitive advantage.”
There is still a chance live dealers can make their way back into the bill before it heads to Pence’s desk for a signature. Because the House and Senate passed different versions of the same bill, the differences will have to be ironed out. The House will be asked to concur with the Senate’s version that doesn’t include live dealers for racinos until 2021. If the House chooses not to concur, the bill will be ordered to a conference committee where lawmakers will try to work out the differences.
That could include allowing live dealers in racinos.
Brown said he remains hopeful something will happen. He said the racinos need live dealers now to combat the competition they are facing from Ohio casinos. Dealers in five years might be too late.
For now, gamblers like Jones will have to deal with electronic dealers, and Hoosier Park and Indiana Grand will have to continue to entice real people with real money to come try their luck on digital screens.