Slot Machine Bill Moving Forward

A House committee in Indiana passed a bill this week that would allow 2,500 slot machines at the state’s two horse racing tracks. Those additional 5,000 slot machines would bring in over $200 million in tax revenue annually and those that support the tracks say that they would assist in keeping the tracks open.

The tracks will pay the state $75 million for a slot machine license, then 32% of the first $150 million the slot machines bring in, then another 37.5% tax on the money over that. The taxes will go to the state and the counties where the tracks reside. The tracks would also surrender the $27 million a year they are getting from the casinos in subsidies to the state to give uninsured residents of the state health insurance. That will start in 2009, once the tracks have started providing for themselves.

The tracks say that they have not been able to compete with other states that allow slot machines at their tracks, nor can they compete with the casinos in their state. The tracks are losing millions and millions each year. However, the move does not make the existing casinos very happy.

The owners of the casinos that are already there say that by giving the tracks slot machines they will be in direct competition with the existing casinos. They say that those that would have traveled to their casinos will go to the tracks since they are closer to their homes, and play the slot machines there instead.

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