MIKE SMITH
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS - A lawmaker who had encouraged efforts to legalize and regulate video gambling machines in taverns and other places that sell alcohol cast serious doubts Tuesday on the chances of any such legislation passing the General Assembly this year.
Rep. Win Moses, D-Fort Wayne, was the major proponent of such a change in the Republican-controlled House, but he did not file a bill on the issue by a Tuesday deadline. He said he did not believe any other bill to legalize the machines had been filed either, and cited that and other factors in saying that any serious push likely would have to wait until next year.
"Too complex and too short a period of time," Moses said. Unlike odd-numbered years when lawmakers meet from early January until late April, this session is to end by March 14.
Estimates on how many machines are being operated illegally across the state have varied widely, but generally have ranged between 10,000 to 20,000.
Some lawmakers, including Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Meeks, R-LaGrange, have said the state should legalize the machines and then tax them. The Indiana Licensed Beverage Association had tried in recent months to drum up more grassroots support getting such a law passed.
But Meeks has said that any effort to tax the machines would have to start in the House, where revenue-raising bills generally must originate. But House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, has been cool to the idea.
Gov. Mitch Daniels has said that the machines should either be legalized and taxed or laws against them should be enforced. But he has indicated recently that he did not believe there was much legislative momentum for legalizing them this year.
Moses said it was his general impression that if an effort was to be successful, a bill had to start in the House.
"And the bill had so many features in it, that in this short period, with only a couple of weeks of study time in committee, it was probably wiser done next session, wiser considered in the next session," Moses said.
There have been repeated efforts to legalize the machines and to authorize slot-like machines at the state's pari-mutuel tracks, and as lawmakers know, nothing is truly dead until the session ends and something has failed to pass.
But Rep. Jeff Espich of Uniondale, the fiscal leader for House Republicans, said Tuesday that he did not see any groundswell of support from lawmakers, the public or the governor to expand legalized gambling this year.
"I absolutely feel, see none of that, period," Espich said.
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS - A lawmaker who had encouraged efforts to legalize and regulate video gambling machines in taverns and other places that sell alcohol cast serious doubts Tuesday on the chances of any such legislation passing the General Assembly this year.
Rep. Win Moses, D-Fort Wayne, was the major proponent of such a change in the Republican-controlled House, but he did not file a bill on the issue by a Tuesday deadline. He said he did not believe any other bill to legalize the machines had been filed either, and cited that and other factors in saying that any serious push likely would have to wait until next year.
"Too complex and too short a period of time," Moses said. Unlike odd-numbered years when lawmakers meet from early January until late April, this session is to end by March 14.
Estimates on how many machines are being operated illegally across the state have varied widely, but generally have ranged between 10,000 to 20,000.
Some lawmakers, including Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Meeks, R-LaGrange, have said the state should legalize the machines and then tax them. The Indiana Licensed Beverage Association had tried in recent months to drum up more grassroots support getting such a law passed.
But Meeks has said that any effort to tax the machines would have to start in the House, where revenue-raising bills generally must originate. But House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, has been cool to the idea.
Gov. Mitch Daniels has said that the machines should either be legalized and taxed or laws against them should be enforced. But he has indicated recently that he did not believe there was much legislative momentum for legalizing them this year.
Moses said it was his general impression that if an effort was to be successful, a bill had to start in the House.
"And the bill had so many features in it, that in this short period, with only a couple of weeks of study time in committee, it was probably wiser done next session, wiser considered in the next session," Moses said.
There have been repeated efforts to legalize the machines and to authorize slot-like machines at the state's pari-mutuel tracks, and as lawmakers know, nothing is truly dead until the session ends and something has failed to pass.
But Rep. Jeff Espich of Uniondale, the fiscal leader for House Republicans, said Tuesday that he did not see any groundswell of support from lawmakers, the public or the governor to expand legalized gambling this year.
"I absolutely feel, see none of that, period," Espich said.