Standing inside the glittering, 400,000-square-foot Horseshoe Casino in the heart of Cincinnati’s downtown, Steve Rosenthal sounded like a happy man as he greeted an Indiana reporter who’d come for sneak peek of Ohio’s newest gambling hall.
As a partner in Rock Gaming, the company developing the $400 million venue slated to open Monday, he’s counting on Ohio’s neighbors to cross the state border with fistfuls of cash and credit cards in hand.
“I would love to have Hoosiers come visit us,” said Rosenthal. “The casino is just one more reason to come to Cincinnati.”
Sounds so cordial, doesn’t it? But Ohio’s decision to get into the lucrative world of gaming is posing a serious threat to Indiana’s share of casino dollars and prompting a Statehouse debate about how to respond.
When Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati officially opens, it will be the fourth big-city casino launched in the Buckeye state in 10 months — and the closest one to the Indiana border.
In location and amenities, it’s designed to be enticing: Just a short hop off the interstates that run through the city, the upscale casino is fronted by a crystal-chandeliered, glass-walled entryway that offers a sweeping view of the city’s downtown.
Open 24/7, it features 2,000 slot machines, 87 table games, a VIP players’ lounge with limits as high as $50,000 a hand, a World Series of Poker room, a private bar for big spenders, (and one for low-rollers, too), and three outward-facing restaurants, including singer Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville.
Also inside: 1,700 friendly employees, eager to make you feel welcome enough to willingly part with your money.
Ohioans long resisted Las Vegas-style gambling, sure of the ills it would bring. Three times, the state’s voters turned down gambling measures on the ballot before finally approving legalized casinos in 2009.
What changed? Hurting from the recession — and the related deep cuts in state services when tax revenues plunged — voters decided the estimated $1 billion being wagered annually by Ohio residents in neighboring states like Indiana needed to stay home.
“They were ready to recapture those dollars,” said Matt Shuler, executive director of the state’s Casino Control Commission. The theme the pro-casino campaign, Shuler said: “Ohio needs the money.”
Ohio only had to look to Indiana to see how fruitful gambling could be.
Since the mid-1990s, when it became the sixth state in the nation to legalize casino gaming, Indiana has raked in more than $10 billion in casino taxes and drawn millions of gamblers across state lines.
Last year, Indiana’s 13 riverboat-, land-based and racetrack casinos saw $2.7 billion in gross gaming revenues and paid more than $450 million in wages and benefits to 14,000-plus employees.
The American Gaming Association ranks Indiana as the third largest commercial gambling market in the nation.
“Indiana is a gaming state,” said Senate Minority Leader Tim Lanane, whose district includes the Hoosier Park racetrack casino in Anderson. “That’s just the case.”
But fortunes are changing.
There are now 23 states with a cut of the action, and more than 1,200 commercial casinos competing for gaming dollars. More than half the states with legalized casinos have gotten into the game since 2008.
Indiana saw the problems coming. Three years ago, state fiscal analysts predicted the arrival of casinos in Ohio, coupled with casino expansion in Illinois and Michigan, would cut deeply into the competition for gambling dollars and the hefty tax revenue stream that helps fund essential public services in Indiana.
Now they’re witnessing their fears: In the short months they’ve been open, the casinos in Toledo, Columbus, and Cleveland have earned more than $404 million and generated $133 million in taxes. With Cincinnati, the total casino revenues in Ohio are predicted to hit almost $1 billion a year.
Meanwhile, Indiana is on a losing streak.
Admissions and revenue are down over the last three years.
Patronage at the state’s riverboat and land-based casinos have fallen under 2 million for the past five consecutive months. That’s the longest such streak in a decade, said Ed Feigenbaum, who tracks the numbers for his Indiana Gaming Insight newsletter.
“Things are only going to get worse,” Feigenbaum said. The additional casinos aren’t expanding the gaming market, he said, they’re “cannibalizing the market.”
January was a particularly gruesome month. Combined, Indiana’s five floating casinos on Lake Michigan saw the lowest revenues since December 2001. The six southern Indiana casinos had their worst month since January 2003.
Indiana legislators are trying to come to grips with the grim news. A bill that passed the state Senate last week would grant tax breaks to the state’s 10 riverboat casinos and allow them to relocate nearby to dry land. And it would give Indiana’s racetrack-casinos the ability to operate table games like craps, roulette, and blackjack.
But the complicated legislation, described by Feigenbaum as a “Rube Goldberg device,” faces an uncertain future in the House.
Opponents fear the tax breaks will cut too deeply into the tax revenue streams that the state and local communities where the casinos are located have come to rely on.
And Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma of Indianapolis said the bill may be seen as an expansion of gambling — something his conservative caucus members will oppose.
Senate Minority Leader Tim Lanane fears the legislation will simply die. “This issue is ‘Can we wait another year?’,” Lanane said. “In my opinion, if we put it off, the problem will only become more severe.”
News
Ohio poses threat to Indiana’s gaming industry
- News
-
-
Terre Haute Coke & Carbon: Cleaning up a legacy
When heavy equipment starts moving dirt next week at the former Terre Haute Coke and Carbon industrial site, city officials hope a new day will be dawning for a long-neglected part of town.
-
Diversity growing: New census report shows changing face of Indiana
Like the rest of the nation, Indiana is continuing on a trend toward greater diversity as the numbers of Hispanics, blacks, Asians and other minorities are rising at a faster pace than whites.
-
Valley following diversity path of nation, Indiana
Like much of Indiana, the majority white population in the Wabash Valley is on the decline, while minority populations are on the increase.
-
Court lets walkout fines against House Democrats stand
House Democrats who had to pay more than $100,000 in fines after they walked out of the Indiana Statehouse two years ago during a legislative session won’t get the help they sought from the Indiana Supreme Court.
-
Arrest made, victim identified in Rosedale homicide
The victim in a Parke County homicide that occurred last week has been identified as Kathryn A. Bays, 55, of Rosedale.
-
Vermillion industrial park gets award for transition
The Vermillion Rise Mega Park, a former chemical weapons base now an industrial park north of Clinton, has gotten national attention for its rapid transition to civilian from military use.
-
Slight damage from evening storm
Very little damage was reported from a late evening storm that rolled through the Wabash Valley on Tuesday.
-
U.S. 41 lane restrictions
Motorists should expect delays because of lane restrictions on U.S. 41 in Sullivan County next week as a railroad company repairs a rail crossing 1.2 miles north of Shelburn.
-
Back home again: Items from vaudeville stage and Terre Haute native sent to Historical Society
The staff at the Vigo County Historical Museum are excited about the arrival of priceless items used by Terre Haute-native Rose Fehrenbach and her husband, Edward Pierce, to promote their Vaudeville acts in the early 20th century.
-
Husband charged in Archer homicide
Terre Haute Police have found local reports of domestic violence between a Terre Haute man and his wife, whose body was discovered wrapped in a tarp and dumped in an Ohio ditch.
-
National Road panels dedicated
Rewind to the mid-1800s, when the trotting of a horse and buggy on National Road could be heard alongside the voices of people heading west, searching for opportunities.
-
Pence sets agency priorities
Following a directive from Gov. Mike Pence, state agency heads are reorganizing some of their top priorities to better reflect the first-year governor’s “roadmap for Indiana” plan for improving the state’s economy, infrastructure and health.
-
Another I-70 traffic snarl: Three injured in two related crashes
Three people were injured Monday afternoon from a pair of crashes on Interstate 70 that temporarily closed the highway and diverted traffic into Terre Haute.
-
Terre Haute man still hospitalized after scooter/car crash
A Terre Haute man remained hospitalized Monday at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis after his scooter struck a car early Saturday on Wabash Avenue at 25th Street.
-
Overpass repairs causing Interstate 70 lane restrictions
Repairs to the Frye Road overpass in southeastern Vigo County has caused a restriction to the left lane of Interstate 70 between the 13- and 14-mile markers, about two miles east of the Indiana 46 exit.
-
Indiana woman condemned for killing at 15 is freed
A woman who was sentenced to death at age 16 for taking part in the torture and murder of a 78-year-old Bible studies teacher was released from an Indiana prison Monday after growing to middle age behind bars.
-
Grant will let Vigo Library evaluate map collection
The Vigo County Public Library has received a $2,000 grant to evaluate its historic map collection, a library official announced Monday.
-
Four juveniles caught on elementary school roof; one injured jumping off
Police say a juvenile was lucky to have suffered only a broken leg after jumping from the roof of a Vigo County elementary school – dropping about 30 feet to the ground.
-
Farmersburg man sentenced after guilty plea in rape case
A Farmersburg man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to a rape that occurred at his parents’ residence in May 2012.
-
Still no information being released on Rosedale homicide
No new information was being released Monday afternoon concerning a Rosedale homicide.
-
Fathers take time out to spend quality time with children, grandchildren
A big, circular white cloud rose up through the tall atrium as Mike Woods held his 4-year son, Nathan, Sunday at the Terre Haute Children’s Museum.
-
On Friday, hit the park and raise funds for skateboarders
The On-board United Initiative — O.U.I. for short — has scheduled an all-ages fundraising event Friday in honor of national Go Skateboarding Day.
-
STATE OF THE STATEHOUSE: Sentencing law could benefit juveniles
Monica Foster is a longtime public defender who’s been pushing uphill in the legal system for a long time. So, when she says the General Assembly is making progress protecting the rights of the disenfranchised, it’s worth stopping to listen to her.
-
Mastering the art of Gardening
The Wabash Valley Master Gardeners group gathered over the weekend to marvel at each other’s gardens on its annual garden tour. The event was a chance for master gardeners to showcase their labor of love, meanwhile sharing stories about their plants.
-
RESTAURANT INSPECTIONS: June 17, 2013
The Vigo County Health Department inspected the following food establishments May 28-31:
-
Lawn mower fire destroys barn
A lawn mower that caught fire was cited as the cause of a fire that destroyed a single story barn Sunday in the 2000 block of North Chamberlain Street, said Harold Osborn, assistant fire chief of the Lost Creek Township Fire Department.
-
Wabash Valley residents vie for spot on Wheel of Fortune
Ellen Fujawa of Zionsville wants to be on the popular syndicated Wheel of Fortune game show.
-
No ID yet on body found in Rosedale home
Sheriff Mike Eslinger said his department is waiting to obtain an immediate family’s confirmation of a woman found dead in a home in the 2900 block of West Rosehill Lane.
-
Vigo School Corp. eliminating bus transportation for middle school sports teams
The Vigo County School Corp. will no longer provide school bus transportation for middle school athletic events, starting with the 2013-14 school year.
-
B.J. RILEY: Fathers are an inspiring figure
Ever since I can remember, I wanted to be a salesman. In grade school, I was so excited about selling candy bars or candles or whatever the chosen product.
- More News Headlines
-
Tiger on Sergio: 'It's Time to Move On'
Hoffa Mystery Still Fascinates After 4 Decades
Raw: NASCAR Driver Jason Leffler Dies in Wreck
Ex-NFL Star Chad Johnson Out of Jail
3 Charged in Ohio With Enslaving Mom, Daughter
Raw: Huge Fire Near Yosemite National Park
Raw: Marines Land Osprey on Japanese Ship
Raw: 1 Dead in Shooting at Mo. Apartment Complex
RAW: NSA Director Says 50 Plots Foiled
Pa. Girl Who Took on Donor Rules Gets Lungs
Raw: Obama Arrives in Berlin
Raw: Volcano Erupts Near Mexico City
Failed Cuba-to-Florida Swimmer Won't Try Again
Rain Damages Brazil Soccer Stadium
Prosecutors Push for Smartphone "Kill Switch"
Obama Welcomes WNBA Champions to White House
Raw: Australian Begins Cuba to Florida Swim
Google Launches Internet-beaming Balloons
Obama Seeks G-8 Support on Syria
Falling Cable Hurts 10 NASCAR Fans
Spurs' Popovich has no problem with Spurs' intensity
Inside Kim Kardashian's Premature Labor
Three Charged for Enslaving Mother and Daughter
Paige Butcher Scorches on Hawaii Beach
Video: worst way to load cargo onto a plane
Never-before-seen footage of '08 Times Square bomber
Obama: NSA Secret Data Gathering 'Transparent'
WATCH IT: Lil Wayne tramples American flag
Mariah Carey Looks Beautiful in a Tiny Cut-Out Swimsuit
Out of Control Boat Throws Passengers Overboard
See Lindsay Lohan in Rehab
Sofia Vergara Posts Perky Backside Pic in Thong
Gaga Ditches Her Crazy Couture
Caught on Tape: Teacher Accused of Beating Autistic Child
"Stay Classy" Campaign Aims to Curb Binge Drinking
Sesame Street Tackling Tough Topic Parents in Jail
Miss Utah Fumbles Interview Question
Deranged man claims Newark-bound flight was poisoned
