INDIANAPOLIS -- A bill that could bring live dealers to Indiana Grand Racing & Casino passed the House Public Policy Committee on Thursday, but must still make it through Ways & Means before it can reach the full House.
House Bill 1540 would also allow riverboat casinos to locate on land adjacent to their current locations while permitting Indiana Grand and its sister facility, Hoosier Park in Anderson, to replace electronic table games with live dealers.
The bill calls for a 1:1 replacement of electronic games with live dealers for the state's two racinos, while the amended version offered by Rep. Terry Austin, D-Anderson, and approved by the committee increases from two years to five years the period in which the Indiana Gaming Commission is prohibited from authorizing an increase in table games at the racinos.
Rep. Matt Lehman,R-Berne, had offered an amendment that would have stripped the table game provision from the bill completely.
"I personally did not feel comfortable with the live dealers, because I do feel it changes the game midstream," Lehman said. "The reality is live dealers are coming. But do they need to come today?"
Lehman didn't ask for a vote on his amendment.
The provision to add live dealers came under fire from Dan Lee, CEO of Full House Resorts, which operates Rising Star Casino, who likened it to being "stabbed in the back."
"When you say, 'Oh, we've been hurt by the competition from Ohio,' that's true. But it's not the racinos (that are being hurt). And the solution seems to be, let's give the racinos another competitive advantage, and it's like, 'OK, that's just hurting us even more,'" Lee testifed, noting how he was trying to restore Rising Star's profitability, which had declined since the racinos opened.
"Out of left field I hear, 'Oh, you might get stabbed in the back, they're going to let tables into the racinos.' And I thought, Jesus, do we throw good money after bad, if we're going to be profitable?"
Lee acknowledged he had only been with Rising Star for a few months, so he wasn't able to testify before last year's summer study committee which addressed the gaming issue.
Rep. Sean Eberhart, R-Shelbyville, took Lee to task for the "stabbed in the back" remark, as well as Lee's assertion that Centaur Gaming, which owns both racinos, has a monopoly.
"One company controls the two land-based casinos bracketing the state's largest metropolitan area, that's just a fact," Lee said.
Eberhart said that was evaluated by the Federal Trade Commission, and it was found that Centaur did not have a monopoly.
"I just want to make sure that was clarified," Eberhart said.
"I'm not aware of any other slot machines in the Indianapolis area owned and operated by anyone other than Centaur," Lee said.
"I don't dispute that," Eberhart said. "But I'm disputing (your assertion), it was ruled not a monopoly."
Jim Brown, Centaur's president and COO, testified in support of the amendment.
"We believe this to be a fair, logical step to study the effect at the casinos while at the same time giving our properties a way to combat increased competition," Brown said.
Brown has said in the past that allowing live dealers at Centaur's facilities would add jobs and should lead to increased business. That in turn would lead to increased tax revenues for the state and local communities.
Ways & Means will need to consider the bill to address the fiscal and tax concerns.