{"id":99327,"date":"2019-02-27T01:17:48","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T09:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=99327"},"modified":"2019-02-27T01:17:48","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T09:17:48","slug":"indiana-senate-approves-terre-haute-casino-gambling-package","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/indiana-senate-approves-terre-haute-casino-gambling-package\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana Senate Approves Controversial Terre Haute Casino Gambling Package"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Indiana Senate on Tuesday passed a gambling expansion package<\/a> that would legalize sports betting, authorize table games for racetracks, allow for a Gary riverboat casino to move 160 miles inland to Terre Haute, and remove the cap on the number of casinos a single company is permitted to own within the state.<\/p>\n

\"Terre
The bill would allow Spectacle Entertainment to relocate one of its Majestic Star casinos on the shores of Lake Michigan in Gary to Terre Haute, 160 miles away. Opponents say this would effectively create a new casino license. (Image: Spectacle Entertainment)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just don\u2019t call it “gambling expansion,” because supporters of the bill are touchy about the term. They prefer to see it as an \u201copportunity to leverage the state\u2019s existing assets.”<\/p>\n

Co-sponsor State Senator Mark Mesmer (R-Jasper) has called it a \u201conce in a generation opportunity to reset the casino industry in Indiana.\u201d<\/p>\n

House Won\u2019t Mince Words <\/strong><\/h2>\n

The desire to soften the language comes from the recognition that the bill will have a tougher time of it in the House, where it heads next, and where House Speaker Brian Bosma\u00a0is determined to cut the bull.<\/p>\n

He calls it \u201cmassive gambling expansion\u201d and expressed his surprise Tuesday that it had cleared the Senate.<\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s not sports betting that is proving particularly controversial — Bosma supports it — or even the casino-style gaming within the racetracks. The main bugbear is the transplantation of one casino from the shores of Lake Michigan to Terre Haute.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Indiana\u2019s riverboat casinos have been slowly crawling onto dry land since 2015, when the legislature approved a measure for land-based gaming. In 2017, Tropicana Evansville was the first to make the evolutionary jump — but casinos were expected to remain within a few hundred yards of their original moorings.<\/p>\n

New License?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The bill would allow Spectacle Entertainment, which recently purchased<\/a> two Gary floating casinos, Majestic Star I and Majestic Star II, to relocate out of Buffington Harbor on Lake Michigan, with one possibly going to Terre Haute and the other to another part of Gary.<\/p>\n

The plan has the approval of Gary officials who have earmarked Buffington Harbor for redevelopment.<\/p>\n

But opponents argue that moving a casino from one city to another essentially creates a \u201cnew license.\u201d Supporters disagree.<\/p>\n

The bill would also establish a competitive bidding process for Terre Haute that could reopen the door for Full House Resorts, owner of the Rising Star Casino in southeast Indiana, which has long lobbied for the opportunity to operate a casino in the city.<\/p>\n

City officials in Terre Haute have said they support a casino but do not care who builds it.<\/p>\n

Gamblers in Indiana who are simply hoping for some legal sports betting action should not hold their breath. Gambling bills that are too ambitious in scope tend to get shot down, and a standalone sports betting bill — shaved of cross-sector interests — would have a better chance of passing this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Indiana Senate on Tuesday passed a gambling expansion package that would legalize sports betting, authorize table games for racetracks, allow for a Gary riverboat casino to move 160 miles inland to Terre Haute, and remove the cap on the number of casinos a single company is permitted to own within the state. Just don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":99329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18,32093,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIndiana Senate Approves Terre Haute Casino Gambling Package<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Indiana gambling package bill approved by Senate would legalize sports betting, authorize table games for racetracks, allow for a Gary riverboat transform into a Terre Haute casino, 160 miles away.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Indiana Senate Approves Terre Haute Casino Gambling Package\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Indiana gambling package bill approved by Senate would legalize sports betting, authorize table games for racetracks, allow for a Gary riverboat transform into a Terre Haute casino, 160 miles away.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/indiana-senate-approves-terre-haute-casino-gambling-package\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-02-27T09:17:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/majestic.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/indiana-senate-approves-terre-haute-casino-gambling-package\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/indiana-senate-approves-terre-haute-casino-gambling-package\/\",\"name\":\"Indiana Senate Approves Terre Haute Casino Gambling Package\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/indiana-senate-approves-terre-haute-casino-gambling-package\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/indiana-senate-approves-terre-haute-casino-gambling-package\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/majestic.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-27T09:17:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-02-27T09:17:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Indiana gambling package bill approved by Senate would legalize sports betting, authorize table games for racetracks, allow for a Gary riverboat transform into a Terre Haute casino, 160 miles away.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/indiana-senate-approves-terre-haute-casino-gambling-package\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/indiana-senate-approves-terre-haute-casino-gambling-package\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/indiana-senate-approves-terre-haute-casino-gambling-package\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/majestic.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/majestic.jpg\",\"width\":1600,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"The bill would allow Spectacle Entertainment to relocate one of its Majestic Star casinos on the shores of Lake Michigan in Gary to Terre Haute, 160 miles away. 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He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. 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