Indiana Online Casino and iLottery Measure Fails in House Chamber

Posted on: February 13, 2025, 04:18h. 

Last updated on: February 13, 2025, 04:18h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Commercial Gaming, Legislation, Politics.

The Indiana online casino and lottery bill that passed the House Public Policy Committee last month won’t be further considered.

Indiana online casino lottery
Lawmakers in the Indiana Capitol have folded on legislation to legalize online casinos and internet lottery games. Indiana politicians seem less than eager to amend the state’s current gaming industry. (Image: Shutterstock)

On Thursday, Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston (R-Hamilton) said House Bill 1432 will not move to the full chamber floor after stalling in the Ways and Means Committee. Huston explained that the severity of the bill and how it would overall the Hoosier State’s gaming industry led to many concerns among his constituents.

There’s all sorts of moving parts about how it impacts communities and what it does overall to the gaming environment in Indiana,” Huston said. “I think all those things make it complex to work through.”

Along with online slot machines and table games, HB 1432, introduced in January by Rep. Ethan Manning (R-Cass), would have digitized the state-run lottery to allow the Indiana Lottery to conduct instants online. The slot-like games are wildly popular in jurisdictions where iLottery is legal, including Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Online Gaming Shelved

Manning proposed allowing the state’s 13 brick-and-mortar casinos, riverboats, and racinos to operate up to three online gaming websites either on their own or in partnership with a third party like DraftKings and FanDuel. Each iGaming skin would cost $500K upfront and renewed annually at $250K.

Online casinos would have directed 22-30% of their gross gaming revenue to the state. Independent forecasts suggested that Indiana could receive between $413 million to $929 million in additional tax revenue over the first three years of incorporating an iGaming industry into its economy.

Manning justified that Indianans are already gambling online via offshore casinos and controversial sweepstakes platforms that offer unregulated and untaxed interactive slots, tables, and lotteries.

It’s important to remember that Hoosiers are playing casino games online,” Manning said. “These are operated by offshore companies. There are no consumer protections, responsible gaming, absolutely nothing.”

Still, Huston said many lawmakers in Indianapolis, especially those representing districts where the state’s casinos operate, expressed concerns about cannibalization.

Indiana is the latest state to fold on iGaming legislation after Virginia. Legislation remains pending, though the odds are considered long, in Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Wyoming. Wyoming likely has the shortest odds of becoming the eighth state to authorize iGaming and join Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia. 

Indiana Casino Market Remaining Put

In addition to folding on iGaming and iLottery, Indiana lawmakers this year had little interest in allowing Las Vegas-based Full House Resorts to shutter its Rising Sun Casino Resort riverboat in Ohio County for a more favorable operating market.

At Full House’s request, Indiana Sen. Andy Zay (R-Huntington) filed a bill that would have allowed the company to pay a $150 million fee to the Indiana Gaming Commission to move its gaming license roughly 150 miles north to Allen County and New Haven. Full House reps said Rising Sun hasn’t been an attractive market for years after casinos opened in Ohio and Kentucky authorized slot-like historical horse racing (HHR) machines.

Zay’s bill, however, stalled last month in the Senate Public Policy Committee.