INDIANAPOLIS — Although the possible state approval of live table games could have the biggest impact on Hoosier Park Racing & Casino in Anderson, a study committee looking at ways to make Indiana’s gaming industry more competitive approved several other recommendations that may have wider impact.
An interim study committee on public policy released its recommendations on topics including gaming on Thursday.
Perhaps the biggest recommendation was that the Indiana General Assembly look at ways to improve the free play promotion used by all casinos to attract new business.
Free play promotions are essentially free money the casinos give away to potential customers. The promotional vouchers can only be used at the casinos. For example, if someone got a $25 free play card, they would be able to gamble that amount at Hoosier Park. If they won anything, they would be able to cash that amount out.
But most of the casino owners testified that once the free play promotion gets the customer in the door, they tend to stay and spend more money. A conservative estimate found that casinos make about $3 for every $1 they give away on free play.
Casinos are taxed on the amount they give away and the new casinos that have recently opened up in Ohio are not taxed. Indiana casino operators say this has led to a competitive disadvantage, especially those near the Ohio border, like Hoosier Park and the riverboat casinos in southeast Indiana on the Ohio River.
Casinos can, however, make tax deductions on free play vouchers, which the committee pointed out, has a significant negative impact on the revenue stream to the state and local entities. That ability to make deductions is set to expire in 2016, which could result in less incentive for the casinos to use free play vouchers.
The recommendation ultimately approved by the committee was to extend the expiration of the tax deduction until 2018 in order to give the state more time to study the impact of free play promotions more closely. The committee also said new ways of improving the free play model could be looked at over the next few years.