Rising Star Casino Staying Put as Indiana Committee Stalls Relocation Measure

Posted on: January 30, 2025, 12:47h. 

Last updated on: January 30, 2025, 01:00h.

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

Full House Resorts’ Rising Star Casino Resort in Indiana’s Rising Sun is staying docked in Ohio County for the time being after a state committee stalled legislation to allow the company to relocate its gaming privileges 150 miles north.

Rising Sun Casino Indiana Full House Resorts
The interior of the Rising Star Casino Resort in Rising Sun, Ind., is seen in 2016. The casino’s owner, Full House Resorts, is seeking the state’s permission to close the Rising Star riverboat and relocate its gaming privileges north to New Haven. (Image: Shutterstock)

Las Vegas-based Full House wants to fold on Rising Sun, a market no longer attractive due to casinos and gaming facilities operating in neighboring Ohio and Kentucky. The Rising Star Casino generated gross gaming revenue (GGR) of just $43.8 million in its 2024 fiscal year, a 53% decrease from 2012 when the riverboat won almost $93 million from gamblers.

Full House lobbied state Sen. Andy Zay (R-Huntington) to author legislation to allow the company to shutter Rising Star and take the gaming license to the more desirable operating market of New Haven. Allen County is in the northeastern part of the Hoosier State.

Zay’s Senate Bill 293 proposed allowing Full House to relocate its gaming license to New Haven in exchange for a $150 million fee paid to the Indiana Gaming Commission over five years. The law would have also required Full House to pay a $50 million penalty should it sell or transfer ownership of the license within five years of the law’s enactment.

Sun Doesn’t Set on Rising Star

On Wednesday, the Indiana Senate Committee on Public Policy tabled SB293. Committee Chair Sen. Ron Alting (R-Lafayette) said strong opposition to allowing a casino to come north to Allen County meant swift action shouldn’t be taken.

Alting said no vote on the Rising Star Casino license relocating will be held this year. That means Rising Star, with its RV park, 294-room hotel, four dining options, 18-hole championship golf course, and 40K-square-foot riverboat with 620 slots and video poker machines, plus 16 live dealer table games, will remain in operation for the foreseeable future.

Churchill Downs previously operated a BetAmerica Sportsbook at the Rising Star Casino. The 3,000-square-foot sports betting facility shuttered last year to undergo a rebranding to TwinSpires.

Rising Star operates an online sportsbook in Indiana through a partnership with SBK Sportsbook.

New Haven Casino Plan

Full House said, if allowed, it would invest $500 million to open an integrated resort casino in New Haven near I-469 and the US 30 interchange at Doyle Road. The project pitch included a 200-room hotel, a full-service spa and salon, an event venue, numerous restaurants and bars, a concert hall, and a 90K-square-foot brick-and-mortar casino floor with 1,400 slots, 50 tables, and a sportsbook.

The legislative push to allow Full House Resorts to move its gaming license failed after another gaming-related bill progressed in the General Assembly. House Bill 1432 would allow Indiana casinos to pursue iGaming.

Authored by Rep. Ethan Manning (R-Cass), the online casino bill would permit each casino and riverboat to partner with up to three internet gaming platforms, or skins. Each iGaming operation would come with a $500K fee, and annual gross gaming revenue generated online would be subject to a state tax ranging from 22% to 30%. The final tax would be based on total win.

HB1432 passed the House Public Policy Committee and is now with the House Ways and Means Committee.