Indiana Senate Committee Chair Blocks Bill to Move Casino to New Haven

^{Public Policy Committee chair Ron Alting said he does not plan to allow a vote on moving an Indiana casino license to New Haven after hearing testimony on the proposal. (Image: courtesy of Inside Indiana Business)}

After a contentious two-hour meeting on Wednesday that featured testimony from both casino supporters and opponents, Indiana State Senator Ron Alting (R-Lafayette) made the decision to pull a bill that would have moved a casino license from Rising Sun to New Haven, a city adjacent to Fort Wayne. 

Alting, the chair of the Public Policy Committee, made the decision on Senate Bill 293 after citing the strong opposition to the move that he heard in the meeting.

Neighbors Debate Benefits of New Haven Casino

Full House Resorts had hoped to move their riverboat casino license after competing casinos in Ohio and Kentucky had cut into the southeastern Indiana facility’s revenues. Chief Development Officer Alex Stolyar estimated that moving the casino to New Haven could increase state tax revenues from the $2.3 million that the Rising Star Casino in Rising Sun took in last year to as much as $65.4 million per year. 

Wednesday’s meeting saw passionate testimony from both sides of the debate, with neighbors arguing for and against the casino in turn.

“The casino so close to our school and neighborhoods raises serious concern about – sorry – increased crime, traffic and potential for addictions, and could impact our families,” lifelong New Haven resident Dottie Reidy said, noting that the casino would be located less than five minutes away from schools in the city.

Remarkably, Reidy’s testimony came just after her next-door neighbor, Amanda Zimmerman, had argued for the casino relocation.

“An anchor property like this can bring new, additional, supplemental businesses to New Haven, like hotels, restaurants, shops and the most requested community need: a second grocery store,” Zimmerman said. 

For their part, Full House Resorts presented a letter signed by 2,743 New Haven community members supporting the relocation.

“We do have overwhelming public support,” Stolyar said. “It is not unanimous; I won’t pretend that it is.”

Mayor: Communities Stand Behind Casinos

Alting told the Indiana Capital Chronicle that he doesn’t plan to allow a vote on the bill this year. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the plan to move a casino license to New Haven is dead in the water.

Senate leadership could attempt to push the bill through by moving it to another committee, or a bill could emerge and move forward in the Indiana House. The fact that legislators in both chambers who represent New Haven have opposed the move will hurt the chances of any such bill making progress, but New Haven mayor Steve McMichael says he remains hopeful that a casino will come to his city. 

“I always asked the following question, ‘If you could make the casino go away, would you?’” McMichael said, speaking of his conversations with other Indiana communities that host casinos. “Not a single community said they would make the casino go away if they could. I think that’s really important. They said that if there was a natural disaster or a need in the community, the casino is always the best corporate partner that steps up and rises to the occasion.”

Afterwards, however, Mayor McMichael said he was “at peace” with the legislative process that led to this point.

“I will not actively seek another home for the license relocation language,” McMichael told WANE 15. “But given the overwhelming support relayed to me by the citizens of New Haven, if another legislator wanted to insert language from SB 293 I’d consider supporting it.”