Update from Indiana

Key Dates

• July 25th – The General Assembly still expects to commence its substantive business for the Special Session on July 25^th. We have confirmed with numerous members in the House and Senate that both chambers intend to address abortion-related issues in addition to any “inflation relief” matters that the Governor initially asked to be addressed during Special Session. Although there are no legal or procedural limitations on the subject matter to be addressed during Special Session, we remain confident that there will be no realistic opportunity for gaming legislation to be considered prior to 2023. We continue to hear that there will be substantial fiscal / financial and spending packages considered in association with inflation relief and abortion – all of which are likely to impact the state’s financial / future revenue generation needs.
• July 14-15: As we have referenced in prior weeks, the IN Gaming Commission is hosting a Continuing Legal Education seminar at the French Lick Casino. One of the sessions is entitled “What’s ahead with iGaming,” which is being presented by the IGC’s General Counsel, Dennis Mullen. We were unable to attend this particular session, but intend to receive as much updated information as possible from agency staff ASAP after the fact.
• Third Quarter / release of IGC igaming study – As reference 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

• We met with Sen. Rod Bray’s Chief of Staff, Jeff Papa, on JULY 5^th to discuss igaming.  Jeff confirmed that Sen. Bray’s primary concern with moving igaming legislation remains the lingering uncertainties surrounding the potential for additional criminal indictments relevant to Centaur / Spectacle Entertainment’s political contributions; specifically the fear of current Senate members being dragged into the discussion. Although he maintained that they have no specific information to indicate that additional indictments are likely to occur, the speculative reports that there may be more to come remain a concern for the Senator. We continued to emphasize the complete lack of relevance / connection between prior wrongdoings of former licensees as compared to the legitimate lawful gaming businesses associated with igaming and argued for the importance of having a substantive / public discussion about igaming policy during the 2023 session (win or lose). Jeff acknowledged our position and responded with two primary thoughts: (i) that he would assist in procuring a meeting directly with Sen. Bray later in the year / following Special Session; and (ii) that any igaming bill should start in the House. He also acknowledged that a bill passing through the House and coming to the Senate would both put pressure on the Senate to hear the bill and enable additional procedural options for the legislation even if the Senate were not to move the bill. We followed-up after the meeting by providing him with a copy of the iDEA/Casino Association of Indiana market study.
• We attended the NCLGS conference in Boston last week. Also in attendance from Indiana were Senator Jon Ford and Senator Mike Bohacek. Both Senators participated in a sit-down meeting with iDEA members who were present at the conference. Sen. Bohacek had never attended a NCLGS conference before, but was very engaged in the discussions and eager to learn. He is generally supportive of igaming legislation, but asked several questions about the potential for cannibalization of brick and mortar casinos as well as the potential objections of local governments fearful of losing revenue sharing. As a follow-up, earlier this week we provided Sen. Bohacek with a copy of the iDEA/Casino Association of Indiana market study. We will continue to work with him moving forward as well as encourage the lobbyists for his local casino (Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City) to communicate with him directly.
  • During the conference we had lunch with Matt Bell (CAI President), Ryan Soultz (in-house Lobbyist for Boyd Gaming) and John Pappas to discuss overall strategy for the 2023 session.
• We are working to schedule a meeting with Rep. Ethan Manning during Special Session to discuss forward-looking strategy in the House. This will include continued discussions about procedural strategy.