IN General Assembly Remains in the 2022 “Interim” Period

Key Dates

• July 25th – The General Assembly will commence its substantive business for the Special Session on July 25^th. Both chambers intend to address abortion / reproductive rights / and related programs in addition to gas tax and “inflation relief” matters during Special Session. The Senate has released three substantive bills for consideration, which can be found here:  http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2022ss1/bills/. The House has yet to release any draft legislation. However, we remain confident that there will be no realistic opportunity for gaming legislation to be considered prior to 2023. We will continue to monitor the fiscal bills in particular to evaluate how they may impact the upcoming budget session and whether increased gaming revenues may be a topic of interest. As a reminder, the State closed the 2022 fiscal year with more than $6 billion in reserves: https://www.ibj.com/articles/indiana-finishes-fiscal-year-with-more-than-6-billion-in-reserves.
• Third Quarter / release of IGC igaming study – As referenced in previous weeks, we continue to monitor the IGC’s anticipated release of the iGaming study that they procured from Spectrum Gaming. In a presentation that the IGC gave earlier this week to other internal state agencies, the IGC staff indicated that they anticipate finalizing the study “during the third quarter.”

iDEA Engagement / Opportunities / Issues

• Because legislators will be in Indianapolis during Special Session (many of whom we expect to be eager to talk about issues other than reproductive rights), we will be looking for as many opportunities as possible to have discussions / continue to educate members about i-gaming legislation for the regular session in 2023. Although top leadership and staff will be completely consumed by the limited issues being considered during the Special Session, other rank and file members will likely be more willing and able participants.
• We will also be using the Special Session to continue gathering information about the likely timing and naming of a successor for the House Ways & Means Committee. As discussed in previous weeks, Ethan Manning’s role in that process may have a material impact on our strategy in the House for 2023.