Online casinos won’t be coming to the Hoosier State in 2025.
House Speaker Todd Huston told the Indiana Capital Chronicle that House Bill 1432 wasn’t heard in the Ways and Means Committee on Thursday, killing the chances that online poker, table games, and slots will be legalized during this legislative session.
Huston said the complexity of the bill made it difficult for lawmakers to reach a consensus.
“There’s all sorts of moving parts about how it impacts certain communities, what it does to the overall gaming environment in Indiana,” Huston said in the report. “I think all those things just make it complex to work through.”
Rep. Ethan Manning authored and introduced the bill last month, which projected $300 million in extra tax revenue for the Hoosier State. The House Public Policy Committee passed the legislation in late January.
However, the Ways and Means Committee, which would have examined the financial impacts of the bill, wanted nothing to do with it.
The legislation called for iGaming operations to begin Sept. 1. It also proposed online lottery ticket sales in a joint venture with other U.S. states. Also in the bill, Indiana would have added a new responsible gaming program and certain types of sports betting ads would have been restricted.
Roadblocks
Indiana has historically been more gaming-friendly than many other U.S. states. In 2019, shortly after PASPA was overturned, online and retail sports betting were added. The Hoosier State also operates and regulates a dozen commercial casinos.
However, HB 1432 faced too many obstacles to overcome. Some lawmakers feared iGaming would hurt those land-based casinos and in-person lottery sales.
At least one brick-and-mortar casino, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle, opposed legalizing online poker, table games, and slots.
Any new gaming law in Indiana faces a difficult path right now anyway. Rep. Sean Eberhart is serving a one-year prison sentence for pushing a bill that helped a casino company in exchange for a job. The scandal created a stigma among Republicans in the Indiana legislature that is still lingering.
Late last year, a city council member representing southwest Indianapolis rejected a proposal to allow video gaming terminals and e-pull tabs in restaurants, bars, and truck stops.
Other legislative efforts
iGaming is currently only legal in seven U.S. states. Wyoming and Virginia took shots at adding online casinos to their gaming repertoire but legislative efforts have already failed.
Maryland has been mulling iGaming for a few years. Delegate Vanessa Atterbeary introduced House Bill 0017 this year but it has not gained traction so far. The House’s Ways and Means Committee heard her bill for a second time on Monday but took no action.
Texas lawmakers looking to bring sports betting to the second most populous state in the U.S. face long odds. A sports betting bill in Minnesota is in limbo after it failed to advance out of an initial committee on Thursday.
