Excerpt of a lengthy article in the Jefferson News and Tribune:
State fiscal analysts predict the arrival of casinos in Ohio will cut deeply into the competition for gambling dollars and the billion-dollar tax revenue stream that helps fund essential public services in Indiana. The Indiana Casino Association predicts a $200 million to $300 million annual loss in gross gaming revenues at state’s 13 casinos. State budget analysts, meanwhile, predict a $100 million annual loss in gaming tax revenues.
“It’s going to be a huge hit,” said state Sen. Luke Kenley, the influential chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and member of the State Budget Committee that has to craft a state spending plan with those dwindling dollars. “There’s no way to make up those kind of losses.”
Kenley has already seen a glimpse of the future: Indiana’s gaming revenues have fallen for the past two years. In 2011, admissions to the state’s casinos fell to their lowest level since 1997.
You can blame it on other states honing in on Indiana’s action.
Nineteen years ago, Indiana became the sixth state in the nation to legalize riverboat gambling. Legislators cleared the way for the revenue stream that would come: The taxes the state slapped on the casinos generate more than $800 million a year; combined with the state’s lottery, charity gaming and the pull tabs and punch boards in bars and taverns, gambling generates about $1 billion annually in tax revenues for the state.
There are now 22 states in the gambling game, and about half have entered since 2008 when the recession hit state coffers. Like Indiana, they went in search of a sure-fire revenue stream. According to a new report from the American Gaming Association, there are now 1,020 casinos across the U.S. That doesn’t count the ones coming on line in Ohio.
Mike Smith, executive director of the Indiana Casino Association, has been warning lawmakers for several years that the numbers were going down. The market for gambling dollars, Smith said, is “more and more saturated.”
“Making sure we stay competitive is the big thing,” Smith said of Indiana’s casinos. He’s hoping legislators will consider easing up a little on their dependence on gaming tax revenues.
http://newsandtribune.com/business/x2108297483/Indiana-loses-as-more-states-gamble-on-casino-revenues
