Saturday, June 20, 1998BY RACHEL MELCER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. ‹ Indiana receives more money from riverboat casinos than any other state in the country and ‹ with a ninth expected to open this year and 10th license to be granted this fall ‹ the cash should keep on flowing.
Jack Thar, executive director of the Indiana Gaming Commission, gave the news this week to a panel studying the impact of gambling. The state collects a $3-per-person, per-cruise admission fee plus a 20 percent tax on the boats' receipts.
The state's ninth casino is to open later this year in southern Indiana's Harrison County on the Ohio River. So far, five riverboats are running on Lake Michigan in the Chicago market and three cruise the Ohio River.
"Our vessels are bigger, our vessels are newer and our markets are not as flooded (as in other states). So we are the No. 1 riverboat state," Mr. Thar told the Indiana Gambling Impact Study Commission on Thursday.
That puts it ahead of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, which have the same type of casinos.
Bob Lain, assistant director of tax and revenue policy for the state Budget Agency, provided the numbers: Riverboat
casinos brought $98.6 million to Indiana government coffers last year, and are expected to pay $156 million in taxes this year.
The tenth and final Indiana casino license will be awarded by the Gaming Commission in September "barring anything unforeseen," Mr. Thar said.
The competition for it has been stiff between Switzerland County, which is just south of existing casinos in Rising Sun and Lawrenceburg; and Crosby County, further west and nearer to Louisville, Ky., than Cincinnati.
Gaming commissioners who will vote to award the permit will base their decision on the financial stability and expertise of the company that would operate the riverboat, as well as the benefits it would bring to the host city and county, he said.
Members of the Gambling Impact Study Commission seemed pleased by the economic picture.
But gambling critics worried that the commission ‹ chartered by Indiana Gov. Frank O'Bannon to study the social and economic costs of gambling ‹ would be overwhelmed by dollar signs and ignore human impact.
"We're concerned with what happens to people. . . . And we're going to keep their feet to the fire to make sure that doesn't get lost in the revenue side," said John D. Wolf, Indiana coordinator for the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, who plans to attend every commission meeting.
The panel is to meet monthly through next year, when it is to draft a report and present it to Mr. O'Bannon and the legislature.
