Penn Says No To Land Move
As Indiana lawmakers work on a bill aimed to free up additional revenue for the state and provide casinos the opportunities to compete with new casinos across the borders, local gaming companies like Penn National Gaming (PENN: 25.62 +2.85%) say no.
John Barnett, the casino association lobbyist told the Senate Appropriations Committee that its members, including Penn, would rather deal with the issue more comprehensively next year when the state might have money available to offer casinos incentives for new development or adjust their tax rates to compete with Ohio in addition to the option for land-based operations.
Penn told the committee through John Hammond, a lobbyist for the Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg, that the revision puts casino operators such as themselves at a disadvantage since they just spent $330 million on new riverboat casino that opened in July.
Penn says that price tag is an estimated $40 million more than they would have had to spend to build on land.
“We didn’t have the opportunity to go land-based, and those are the rules we thought we were playing under,” Hammond said. “The equity of us having making that investment and having to compete with someone right down the road who didn’t have to make the additional investment to make the hull, engines and other things on the boat has created difficulty for our folks.”
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