Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

law authorizes ten land-based or

riverboat casino A riverboat casino is a type of casino on a riverboat found in several states in the United States with frontage on the Mississippi River and its tributaries, or along the Gulf Coast. Several states authorized this type of casino in order to en ...

s on

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

and the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

, one land-based casino in

French Lick French Lick is a town in French Lick Township, Orange County, Indiana. The population was 1,807 at the time of the 2010 census. In November 2006, the French Lick Resort Casino, the state's tenth casino in the modern legalized era, opened, drawing ...

, and

racino A racino is a combined race track and casino. In some cases, the gambling is limited to slot machines, but many locations are beginning to include table games such as blackjack, poker, and roulette. In 2003, Joe Bob Briggs described the econo ...

s at the state's two horse tracks. In addition, there is one

Indian casino Native American gaming comprises casinos, bingo halls, and other gambling operations on Indian reservations or other tribal lands in the United States. Because these areas have tribal sovereignty, states have limited ability to forbid gambling t ...

in the state. Other forms of legal gambling are the

Hoosier Lottery The Hoosier Lottery is the official state lottery of Indiana, and is the only US lottery that uses the state's nickname as its official name. It is a member of the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL). The Hoosier Lottery sells scratch-off ticke ...

, parimutuel wagering on horse races, and

sports betting Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. The frequency of sports bet upon varies by culture, with the vast majority of bets being placed on association football, American football, basket ...

Lottery

The Indiana Constitution of 1851 included a ban on lotteries, which was broadly construed by courts as a prohibition on gambling in general. In 1988, state voters approved a constitutional amendment lifting the lottery ban, establishing the

. The Hoosier Lottery sells scratch-off tickets since October 1989. It is a member of the

Multi-State Lottery Association The Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) is an American non-profit, government-benefit association owned and operated by agreement of its 34 member lottery, lotteries. MUSL was created to facilitate the operation of multi-jurisdictional lottery ...

since 1990. and co-founder of

Powerball Powerball is an American lottery game offered by 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It is coordinated by the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL). From its inaugural drawing on April 19, 1992, unti ...

in 1992. It joined

Mega Millions Mega Millions (originally known as ''The Big Game'' in 1996 and renamed, temporarily, to ''The Big Game Mega Millions'' six years later) is an American multi-jurisdictional lottery game; as of January 30, 2020, it is offered in 45 states, the Di ...

in 2010 and

Cash4Life Cash4Life is an American multi-jurisdictional lottery drawing game; as of April 2021, it is offered by ten state lotteries, and is drawn nightly. Ticket sales began on June 13, 2014, in New York and New Jersey; the first drawing took place thr ...

in 2016. Other draw games include Hoosier Lotto, Cash 5, and Poker Lotto.

Horse racing

Pari-mutuel betting was legalized in 1989. Harrah's

Hoosier Park Harrah's Hoosier Park Racing & Casino is a racino including a standardbred racetrack located in Anderson, Indiana, approximately 30 miles northeast of Indianapolis. It is owned and operated by Eldorado Resorts, Caesars Entertainment. The facility f ...

opened in

Anderson Anderson or Andersson may refer to: Companies * Anderson (Carriage), a company that manufactured automobiles from 1907 to 1910 * Anderson Electric, an early 20th-century electric car * Anderson Greenwood, an industrial manufacturer * Anderson Ra ...

in 1994, and off-track betting parlors opened in the state in 1995.

Indiana Downs Horseshoe Indianapolis (formerly Indiana Grand Racing & Casino and Indiana Live!) is a casino with a horse racing track in Shelbyville, Indiana owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment. It is the closest casino to Indianapolis. It offers gamin ...

(now Horseshoe Indianapolis) opened in Shelbyville in 2002. Hoosier Park became a

on 2008 and Indiana Downs did the same in 2009.

Casinos

Legalization efforts

Critics of lottery legalization said the measure would lead to casino gambling, while legislators said there would be little support for casinos. Within months of the amendment's passage, Gary mayor Thomas Barnes proposed opening up the economically depressed city to high-rise resort casinos. The

Indiana General Assembly The Indiana General Assembly is the state legislature, or legislative branch, of the state of Indiana. It is a bicameral legislature that consists of a lower house, the Indiana House of Representatives, and an upper house, the Indiana Senate. ...

rejected a Gary casino bill in 1989, but did assent to a non-binding referendum, which city voters approved by 60 percent. The city began talks to acquire 350 acres of land at the

Gary Works The Gary Works is a major steel mill in Gary, Indiana, on the shore of Lake Michigan. For many years, the Gary Works was the world's largest steel mill, and it remains the largest integrated mill in North America. It is operated by the United Sta ...

for as many as five casinos. Gaming companies from Nevada and Atlantic City flocked to join in lobbying efforts to support a second attempt in the 1990 legislative session, but it was blocked by Senate Republican leaders. In the 1991 session, state Rep.

Charlie Brown Charles "Charlie" Brown is the principal character of the comic strip ''Peanuts'', syndicated in daily and Sunday newspapers in numerous countries all over the world. Depicted as a "lovable loser," Charlie Brown is one of the great American ar ...

of Gary introduced an expanded bill authorizing riverboat casinos on the

and a casino in the resort area of

and West Baden Springs, to attract broader support. The mayor of Hammond floated the idea of converting the SS ''Clipper'' into a casino, but it was not included in the bill. The proposal passed the House but was rejected by a Senate committee. Brown introduced a Gary casino bill in the 1992 session, but it drew little support due to legislators' aversion to controversy in an election year. Southern Indiana legislators introduced a bill to allow riverboat casinos on the Ohio River, which passed the House, and was then expanded, with support from Gary lawmakers, to include boats on Lake Michigan, which were seen as less controversial than land-based casinos. The bill was rejected by the Senate. With new backing from Republican entrepreneur Dean White, Brown reintroduced his bill in the 1993 session, with land-based casinos in Gary and French Lick, and riverboats on the Ohio River, and it passed the House, but was again voted down in Senate committee. A measure was introduced later in the session to allow four riverboats each on Lake Michigan and the Ohio, but it was killed by Senate leaders. Because it failed to approve a budget, the Assembly convened for a special session in June 1993. After weeks of wrangling, a compromise was reached on a Republican budget with no tax increases, with a few side issues to appease Democrats, including authorization of riverboat casinos. The law allowed up to five sites on the shore of Lake Michigan (including two in Gary), five on the Ohio River, and one on

Patoka Lake Patoka Lake is the second-largest reservoir in the U.S. state of Indiana (after Lake Monroe) and is spread across Dubois, Crawford, and Orange counties in southern Indiana. Lake Created as a joint effort between the US Army Corps of Engineers a ...

, near French Lick. Casinos were expected to raise at least $100 million in taxes per year.

Licensing and construction

The first round of gaming license applications in September 1993 attracted 27 proposals for sites in 12 cities. Local referendums, required to authorize casinos in each city or county (except Gary), were held in November; voters in

Clark Clark is an English language surname, ultimately derived from the Latin with historical links to England, Scotland, and Ireland ''clericus'' meaning "scribe", "secretary" or a scholar within a religious order, referring to someone who was educate ...

, Floyd,

Porter Porter may refer to: Companies * Porter Airlines, Canadian regional airline based in Toronto * Porter Chemical Company, a defunct U.S. toy manufacturer of chemistry sets * Porter Motor Company, defunct U.S. car manufacturer * H.K. Porter, Inc., ...

, and Warrick counties rejected casinos, while voters in Hammond and

East Chicago East Chicago is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 29,698 at the 2010 census. The city is home of the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal, an artificial freshwater harbor characterized by industrial and manufacturing act ...

and in Dearborn, LaPorte,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, and Vanderburgh counties approved them. February 2, 1994 was the application deadline for licenses in the communities where referendums had passed; by that day, the number of applications had risen to 50. Officials in some cities conducted extensive hearings to decide which applicants to endorse, though the final decisions were in the hands of the Gaming Commission. City leaders examined 25 proposals in Gary, 6 in

Evansville Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in S ...

, and 8 in Lawrenceburg. After the Porter County referendum failed, several businessmen from

Portage Portage or portaging (Canada: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a ...

had sued the state, arguing that the riverboat law violated the state constitution's ban on special treatment for particular cities, because it called for citywide votes in Hammond and East Chicago, but countywide votes in all other localities. A judge agreed with them in May 1994, enjoining the Gaming Commission from issuing licenses. The

Indiana Supreme Court The Indiana Supreme Court, established by Article 7 of the Indiana Constitution, is the highest judicial authority in the state of Indiana. Located in Indianapolis, Indiana, Indianapolis, the Court's chambers are in the north wing of the Indiana ...

overturned that ruling six months later, but some developers had already withdrawn their proposals because of the stalled process. Four more local referendums were held in 1994, with

Crawford Crawford may refer to: Places Canada * Crawford Bay Airport, British Columbia * Crawford Lake Conservation Area, Ontario United Kingdom * Crawford, Lancashire, a small village near Rainford, Merseyside, England * Crawford, South Lanarkshire, a ...

Harrison Harrison may refer to: People * Harrison (name) * Harrison family of Virginia, United States Places In Australia: * Harrison, Australian Capital Territory, suburb in the Canberra district of Gungahlin In Canada: * Inukjuak, Quebec, or " ...

, and

Perry Perry, also known as pear cider, is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally the perry pear. It has been common for centuries in England, particularly in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire. It is also made ...

counties approving casinos, and Jefferson County rejecting them. The Gaming Commission issued its first preliminary licenses, for the two boats in Gary, in December 1994. One went to

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

's company,

Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc. was a gambling and hospitality company. The company previously owned and operated the now-demolished Trump Plaza and Trump World's Fair (both in Atlantic City), the now-closed Trump Marina, Trump Casino & Hote ...

, and the other went to a joint venture between Detroit businessman Don Barden and President Casinos. The commission next visited Evansville, awarding a license to Aztar Corp. in February 1995, and then southeast Indiana in July, where it selected a

Hyatt Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational hospitality company headquartered in the Riverside Plaza area of Chicago that manages and franchises luxury and business hotels, resorts, and vacat ...

-affiliated project in Rising Sun and a group led by

Argosy Gaming Argosy Gaming Company was an Alton, Illinois based casino operator. History The company through the political connections of its chairman William F. Cellini received the first gambling license in Illinois in modern times. It began operations in ...

and

Conseco CNO Financial Group, Inc. (formerly Conseco, Inc. (from Consolidated National Security Corporation)) is a financial services holding company based in Carmel, Indiana. Its insurance subsidiaries provide life insurance, annuity and supplemental he ...

to build a casino in Lawrenceburg. In Hammond, the panel gave the nod in November to Empress River Casino, operator of two riverboats in

Joliet, Illinois Joliet ( ) is a city in Will County, Illinois, Will and Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the cit ...

. Development of the Gary boats was delayed by disputes over the acquisition of land at

Buffington Harbor The Buffington Harbor is located on the shores of Gary, Indiana United States. It is home to restaurants, hotels, and two casino boats owned by Don Barden Recreation *The Majestic Star Casino, LLC owns and operates two casino boats at Buffingt ...

and the withdrawal of President Casinos from its partnership with Barden. As a result,

Casino Aztar Evansville Bally's Evansville is a casino hotel and entertainment complex in downtown Evansville, Indiana, owned by Gaming and Leisure Properties and operated by Bally's Corporation. Originally named Casino Aztar, it was opened by Aztar Corporation in 199 ...

was the first riverboat to open, on December 7, 1995. The Gaming Commission continued its work in 1996, approving in January the only applicant for the East Chicago license, a group led by Showboat, Inc., a Michigan City casino in April, to be built by the operator of an

East Dubuque, Illinois East Dubuque is a city in Jo Daviess County, Illinois, Jo Daviess County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,505 at the 2020 census, down from 1,704 in 2010. East Dubuque is located alongside the Mississippi River. Across the river is t ...

riverboat, and in May, a

Caesars World Caesars World Inc. was a hotel and casino operator. It began as Lum's Inc., owner of the Lum's chain of restaurants. It shifted into the gaming business with the purchase of Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip in 1969, selling off the restauran ...

casino in Harrison County. The two Gary riverboats,

Trump Casino Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc. was a gambling and hospitality company. The company previously owned and operated the now-demolished Trump Plaza and Trump World's Fair (both in Atlantic City), the now-closed Trump Marina, Trump Casino & Hotel ...

and Barden's Majestic Star, opened on June 11, 1996, and the Empress Casino in Hammond followed weeks later. They were initially prevented from leaving dock by the Johnson Act, a federal law prohibiting gambling on U.S. territorial waters such as the Great Lakes. The boats ran "phantom cruises", allowing gamblers to board only at scheduled cruise times. Congress amended the Johnson Act in October, allowing the boats to cruise as required by Indiana law. With three Ohio River casinos set to open, the Gaming Commission postponed a decision on granting the fifth Ohio River license to Crawford or Switzerland County, deciding to wait to observe the results of the other casinos. Hyatt opened its Grand Victoria II casino in Rising Sun in October 1996, and the Argosy Casino in nearby Lawrenceburg followed in December. The Caesars project, meanwhile, was continually delayed by environmental concerns and archaeological work. Michigan City's Blue Chip Casino, moored in a channel of Trail Creek where it was built on-site, opened in August 1997. By May 1998, the two Cincinnati-area casinos were reporting strong results, so the commission decided to lift its unofficial moratorium on issuing a fifth license. Casino America, the sole applicant for Crawford County, dropped its bid, leaving just one proposal for the commission to consider, a joint venture of

Hollywood Park Hollywood Park may refer to: Places United States * Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California * Hollywood Park, Chicago, a neighborhood in North Park, Chicago, Illinois * Hollywood Park, Inglewood, an entertainment complex and m ...

and Boomtown in Vevay, which it approved in September.

Caesars Indiana Julius Caesar (100–44 BC) was a Roman general and dictator. Caesar or Cæsar may also refer to: Places * Caesar, Zimbabwe * Caesar Creek State Park, in southwestern Ohio People * Caesar (given name) * Caesar (surname) * Caesar (title), a ...

finally opened in November 1998. After being delayed by damage from a mid-river collision en route to Vevay, the Belterra Casino opened in October 2000.

Later developments

The Patoka Lake license went unused because the Army Corps of Engineers, which claims ownership of the reservoir, had a regulation against gambling on its property. Legislators in 2003 authorized an eleventh casino to instead be built in a man-made lake in the area of French Lick and West Baden Springs. The casino's conversion to a land-based facility was retroactively authorized in 2010. A law passed in 2007 allowed the state's two racetracks,

and

, to install up to 2,000 slot machines each. In 2015, the legislature amended the casino law to allow the state's riverboat casinos to move into land-based facilities on their existing sites, to help them remain competitive with casinos in neighboring states. Tropicana Evansville (formerly Casino Aztar) was the first to take advantage of the new law, opening its land-based facility in 2017. An unintended consequence of legal gaming was the burden on charity gaming by non-profit organizations.

Indian casino

The

Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians ( Potawatomi: Pokégnek Bodéwadmik) are a federally recognized Potawatomi-speaking tribe based in southwestern Michigan and northeastern Indiana. Tribal government functions are located in Dowagiac, Michigan. ...

, a tribe historically located in the St. Joseph River Valley of northern Indiana and southwestern Michigan, regained

federal recognition This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...

in 1994, and its members soon voted to pursue casino gaming as an economic development measure. Discussions focused on sites in Michigan because state officials were more friendly to tribal gaming than those in Indiana, and the tribe had deeper ties to that state. A site in

New Buffalo, Michigan New Buffalo is a city in Berrien County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,883 at the time of the 2010 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is wate ...

, near the Indiana border, was selected in May 1996, but reports that the tribe was considering a casino in

South Bend South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total of 103,453 residents and is the fourt ...

or Elkhart continued to surface. By 2001, the tribe said it had no plans for a casino in Indiana. After years of legal battles, the tribe's

Four Winds New Buffalo 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

casino opened in 2007. The tribe announced new plans in 2012 for a 164-acre "tribal village" in South Bend, including a casino. Four Winds South Bend, a Class II gaming facility, opened in January 2018.

List of casinos

List of former casinos

Sports betting

In 2019, the Indiana legislature legalized

starting in September. Casinos, racinos, and off-track betting facilities are eligible for licenses, which allow brick-and-mortar and online betting. The state collects a 9.5% tax. Only professional and college sports competitions can be wagered upon.Indiana sports betting: Here's a list of leagues and events you'll be able to bet on
- Andrew Carlk, Indianapolis Star, 23 July 2019