Courier Journal: Indiana casinos lose millions to Ohio competitors; What is our future in Harrison County?

The Courier-Journal has an interesting article out about the losses Indiana casinos near Cincinnati have faced since Ohio opened up casinos in the Buckeye State. Here is the link to the article.

Here are a few important portions of the article.

Revenues at Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg plunged 36 percent — nearly $114 million — in the past 11 months. The next closest casinos to Cincinnati, the Rising Star and Belterra, took 30 and 23 percent hits to revenue, respectively.

Rising Sun Clerk-Treasurer Rae Baker Gipson said 2014's wagering tax revenues are on pace for a 38 percent decline from $3.2 million. Admission tax revenues are down 23 percent from $2.7 million.

Dillon Dorrell, a member of Ohio County's County council, estimates the county's income from gaming will drop 50 percent.

Near Lawrenceburg, local entities shared $23 million in 2012 from Hollywood. In 2013, the money shrank to $19 million. Lawrenceburg Clerk-Treasurer Jackie Stutz anticipates the revenue will shrink even more dramatically this year.

In Switzerland County, County Council President Mike Jones said he's concerned declining revenues will spur the casino to alter its deal with local governments. The Belterra, he said, is the county's largest private employer, and the money is vital to a community.

Well, here in our area, one only has to take a quick walk in the parking garage at the Horseshoe to see one of the threats to Harrison County's gaming revenue- most of the cars are from Kentucky. Leaders in Kentucky have pushed to legalize at least some forms of casino gaming for years, and one has to expect that we will see a casino in Jefferson County some time in our near future. Does anyone realistically think those Kentucky cars will cross the bridge when they can stay closer to home to gamble? The Cincinnati example tells us the answer is clearly no. One can logically guess is that politicians in Indianapolis, who are seeing state revenue fall, will also look to make it up somewhere, and that answer is to hit local revenues. This was tried by Republican politicians in Indianapolis before. They nearly cut local gaming revenue by more than 80% in 2005, and Republican committee leaders in the State Senate pushed smaller cuts in 2013. Thankfully, we had Sen. Richard Young fighting those efforts on our behalf.

County leaders like Terry Miller knew that this revenue could easily be cut by state leaders and had the foresight to lead to set up a community fund with the Community Foundation to plan for the future. It was to be used for major, special, one-time projects now, and for making up revenue losses in the future. That is how it was used until 2011, when Gary Davis and Phil Smith decided they knew better. They decided to use it to plug holes in the county budget on a yearly basis. This subsidy has increased substantially every year under their leadership. The sad thing is that the Community Fund, which is invested and well-managed, has earned nearly 10%, while gaming revenue, which sits in the bank and earns only a tiny amount of interest is not used. Not exactly the most logical use of money, no? We need new leadership on the County Council like Kyle Nix, Donnie Hussung, and Danny Stults, who will join with Gordon Pendelton and Richard Gerdon for prudent, sound fiscal management, not "my way or the highway" and "if its not my idea, it's a bad idea" leadership we have seen over the past three years.

Storm clouds ahead for Harrison County's riverboat money?