Indiana Online Casino Bill Filed In House, Road To Legalization Begins

A new bill that seeks to legalize online casinos in Indiana has been officially filed by a lawmaker from the state. The goal of this bill is to establish a legal internet casino industry in Indiana by Sept. 1, 2023.

Today, Rep. Ethan Manning filed the Indiana online casino bill, but it still has a significant journey before it can become law.

The House Bill 1536 is initiating in Indiana’s House of Representatives and has a deadline of February 27 to reach its final hurdle before moving to the state Senate.

Indiana Online Casino Bill Details

If online casinos were legalized in Indiana, Hoosiers could enjoy traditional casino games such as blackjack, roulette, and online poker without leaving their homes.

Just like online sports betting, the procedure would involve simply launching an app on your smartphone or a website on your computer. This is an appealing prospect for gamblers in the state, particularly for those who don’t reside near any of Indiana’s brick-and-mortar casinos.

Rep. Manning’s casino bill includes the following key points:

• Permitting Indiana’s casinos to provide online versions of their games.
• Legalizing online poker
• Permitting the Hoosier Lottery to provide online renditions of its games.
• Imposing a 20% tax on online casino revenue
• Redirecting 10% of the tax revenue to the Addiction Services Fund.

The existing legislation would permit the state’s casinos to collaborate with a maximum of three separate online casino brands. Each casino would also be required to pay $500,000 for its license, which would be renewed every year at a cost of $50,000 each.

Taking everything into account, Indiana could see massive revenue generation from legal online casinos. The potential for a new billion-dollar industry exists within the state, but it all hinges on the successful passage of this new legislation.

What's different this time?

This is actually the third attempt by Indiana to legalize online casinos in the state, as per the latest iGaming bill.

Issues related to the pandemic became the priority in early 2021. The previous year also didn’t see much progress, as a chairman of an anti-gaming committee declined to hold a hearing for the casino bill.

Rep. Ben Smaltz was the chairman who led the Public Policy Committee in Indiana in 2022. This committee serves as the initial point of contact for new gambling legislation. Therefore, Smaltz’s opposition to the bill essentially led to its early demise.

This year, however, things are different.

Smaltz has transitioned to another committee, with Rep. Manning stepping into his role. Given that Manning authored Indiana’s online casino bill, this change clearly promises a better outlook for the bill to progress further than it did the previous year, at the minimum.

The state’s internet casino bill has a clear way to pass through the House, but it still needs to make its way through the Senate before it can reach Gov. Holcomb’s desk.

Friends in both houses of the legislature

Expanding gambling is always a challenging proposition in a conservative state such as Indiana. The journey from a bill to law is long, and the newly proposed online casino bill may encounter opposition throughout the process.

Rep. Manning has already submitted the online casino bill in the House. If things progress favorably in that chamber, the bill will in due course move on to the Senate.

The House has until February 27 to conduct the third reading of the bill. If everything goes according to plan until then, the bill should reach the Senate floor no later than the first week of March.

This is where Sen. Jon Ford steps in.

Ford has been instrumental in the legalization of sports betting in Indiana and has also been a leading figure in the state’s online casino initiatives in recent years.

The new online casino bill is virtually the same as the ones Ford has proposed in past years. Believing it would have a better shot beginning in the House rather than the Senate, Ford had Manning present the casino bill for him last year.

This year, the two lawmakers are once again employing that strategy to ensure the bill is guided through both legislative chambers. This significantly boosts the bill’s potential. However, the first hurdle towards legalization is getting it past the House.

Today, Manning officially submitted the bill, marking the commencement of the process. Should everything proceed as planned, by September, Hoosiers might have the ability to place bets at legitimate online casinos in Indiana.