Since the Supreme Court’s decision to allow individual states to determine whether or not they want regulated sports betting in their states, gaming expansion has had a pretty smooth ride in the United States. That smooth ride does, however, occasionally hit a snag. That’s the case in Indiana, a state that will not be offering online casino games or lotteries anytime soon.
House Bill 1432, which would have allowed for online casino gaming and expanded the Indiana State Lottery into the digital world, found support when it was initially introduced. It passed out of the House Public Policy Committee with ease but stalled and died in the House Ways and Means Committee. Some lawmakers were concerned that online casino gaming and lotteries would cannibalize existing in-person lottery ticket sales and land-based casino action.
The author of HB 1432, Rep. Ethan Manning, estimated that the gaming expansion would put an additional $300 million into Indiana State coffers on an annual basis. That lucre wasn’t enough to persuade his colleagues that actually implementing the plan would be more complex than expected.
There’s all sorts of moving parts about how it impacts certain communities, what it does to the overall gaming environment in Indiana. I think all those things just make it complex to work through,” Manning said in comments reported on by the Indiana Capitol Chronicle.
“And I think, you know, just trying to find something there was some consensus on, felt like it was a pretty tough spot to be,” he added.
There are currently only 14 US States that are offering digital lotteries at this time.