Gov. Mike Pence has clearly stated he does not want an expansion of gambling in the state of Indiana. Many people throughout the state agree with him, including several in the state legislature.
Indiana currently has 13 casinos, 10 of which border neighboring states. For many years, non-Indiana residents would cross over into Indiana and gamble with Hoosiers. In 2011, Indiana was the third largest commercial gaming market by revenue. Since then, Ohio and Michigan casinos have developed, with Illinois discussing land-based casinos as close as Danville and Kentucky debating the need for casinos in the Bluegrass State.
For a large portion of Indiana, it is now closer or more convenient for our residents to cross the state line and spend money gambling in Michigan and Ohio instead of traveling to the numerous casinos along the Ohio River in southern Indiana or near Chicagoland in northwest Indiana. If Danville, Ill., becomes a casino city, many on the western edge of the state will be closer to that gambling center than ones offered in Indiana.
Now that gambling is offered in Cincinnati, the three casinos closest to Ohio are struggling for ever more limited gambling dollars. If Kentucky follows the path taken by Ohio one or more of these Ohio River casinos may not survive.
It is time for Indiana casinos to come ashore to more populous land. Several large municipalities in Indiana without large bodies of water that could host riverboats have gamblers who are being tempted daily to cross into neighboring states instead of making longer treks to Indiana casinos.
Fort Wayne, with over 250,000 residents, is currently not allowed to host a casino simple because of its geography. The same holds true for Bloomington and Lafayette. Even the mighty Wabash River that flows through Lafayette doesn’t qualify that municipality for a casino under current Indiana law. If the Illinois legislature decides to award a casino license to the economically depressed community of Danville, residents in Greater Lafayette will be just 60 some miles from gambling out of state versus the 90 some mile trip to Anderson and Hoosier Park.
The 20 most populated cities in Indiana are geographically spread throughout the entire state. Each of them has more than 45,000 residents and tends to be an economic and social hub for their region. The legislature should allow each of these communities to have a referendum on transferring an existing casino license from the clusters currently suffocating along the borders of our state. We don’t need to expand casino gambling in the state of Indiana, but we do need to give some breathing room to those currently starving for more in state visitors.
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