Gaming Study Committee hearing – 10/19/2009

Today marks the third and final Gaming Study Committee hearing in Indianapolis.

The hearing begins at 10am in the State House at Indianapolis.  The agenda may be downloaded here and you may listen and watch the proceedings live on the world wide web here.  Topics to be discussed include:

• Competition from out-of-state gaming facilities and tribal operated gaming facilities
• Land-based gaming/maintenance of Coast Guard compliant navigation systems at riverboat casinos
• Public reporting requirements for recipients of payments under riverboat casino local development agreements
• French Lick Casino issues, including modification of trust payments and subsidies paid by other gaming facilities
• Horse Racing Purses and Breed Development
• Ft. Wayne gaming referendum and issues relating to a Ft. Wayne or northeastern Indiana Casino
• Discussion relating to the scope and content of the Committee’s final report

I will be travelling to Indianapolis and will bring back a full report.  If it should work out, I may have live updates from time to time.  I will definitely have video and at least one interview with one of our local legislative delegates.  I do know that Mayor Tom Henry will be travelling to Indianapolis to testify before the Commission.  I am also expecting to see at least two City Councilmen in attendance, but I’m not sure if they’ll be testifying.  You may remember that Councilman Mitch Harper did testify before the Committee last month.

That last item on the agenda will be of interest because it will give us a clue as to what the Committee members are thinking on some of the issues.  There were some hints at last month’s meeting that they may not be open to changing Casino licenses from riverboats, to land-based.  In fact, one Senator commented that the reason for going with riverboat licenses to begin with was to make it more palatable to legislators and their constituents.  My sense was that they are still not convinced land-based facilities are palatable to citizens.  Allowing one or two of the existing licenses to be converted into land-based licenses would raise cries of foul from other license holders who would be stuck on the water.  Fairness would be an issue in addressing this major change.  There are a few other angles to this issue, which I’ll blog about later this week.

Update at 7:26 am: Woke up not feeling the best and with a slight fever.  I’ve decided not to travel to Indianapolis as I don’t want to infect my travel companions nor anyone else at this point.  I will be watching live from home, so we’ll have some updates then.

Related Images: