Indiana’s online casino and iLottery bill has cleared its first hurdle, emerging successfully from one House committee. However, the next committee may be a tougher test, as the fiscal note that will be attached to the bill is still pending.
That is significant because it was the fiscal note that sunk the last such effort. That previous attempt to regulate online casino games in Indiana came in 2023, and that bill’s fiscal note forecasted significant drops in revenue for the state’s brick-and-mortar casinos.
That projection was enough to sink support for the 2023 proposal in Indianapolis and might be sufficient to do so again in 2025 if the content of the note doesn’t change.
HB 1432 moves on with favorable recommendation
On Wednesday, members of the Indiana House’s Committee on Public Policy recommended HB 1432 for passage with amendments. Rep. Ethan Manning filed the bill and has since enlisted three other co-sponsors.
HB 1432 has three primary effects on gambling in Indiana. It would create a regulated framework for online casino games similar to how legal online sports betting works in the state.
It would also allow the Indiana Lottery to sell tickets online. Finally, HB 1432 creates new funding for research into and treatment of disordered gambling.
HB 1432 has returned to the House’s Ways and Means committee with the amendments that the Public Policy committee added. That committee has a hearing on Jan. 30 but HB 1432 is not on the schedule for consideration.
With approval, it could proceed to the full House. That secondary approval might be pending the publication of HB 1432’s fiscal note. The content of that note could telegraph the bill’s future.
Fiscal note history looms large for HB 1432
The last time Indiana legislators pushed for online casino expansion, the fiscal note attached to that 2023 proposal was highly criticized. In Feb. 2023, Indiana Sen. Jon Ford called that fiscal note “one of the worst documents I’ve seen come out of our legislative services.”
At the center of the criticisms was that the fiscal note claimed that the legalization of online casino play in Indiana would displace as much as 30% of existing land-based gaming revenue. Two more recent studies have concluded that iGaming would have negligible if any negative financial impact on brick-and-mortar casinos in Indiana.
If the fiscal note for HB 1432 makes similar claims, it could stunt the bill’s progress. Wednesday’s hearing on the bill presented some cause for optimism, though.
Indiana casinos present unified support
According to Leslie Bonilla Muñiz of Indiana Capital Chronicle, a representative from the Indiana Casino Association testified at Wednesday’s Public Policy committee hearing. Bonilla Muñiz reports that the testimony characterized online casino play as bringing tremendous benefits to its members and the state.
HB 1432 would require online casino operators to contract with casinos and racetracks in Indiana, giving them a percentage of the revenue from that gaming. The Indiana Casino Association is a trade group for licensed gambling facilities in the state.
Support from the association could counteract any cannibalization concerns, whether in the forthcoming fiscal note or elsewhere. That could be sufficient to make the fourth attempt to legalize online casino play in the last five years successful.