Another consecutive year of little to no interest for a digital lottery platform

By Kate Northrop

A bill to allow online lottery sales in Indiana died before it even had the chance to make it to the House floor for consideration, snuffing out hopes for a digital platform yet again.

Indiana lawmakers are not interested in discussing an online lottery, with the most recent proposal harboring barely any support before it was removed from the docket for consideration.

House Representative Ethan Manning spearheaded the campaign for House Bill 1078, which would have allowed the Hoosier Lottery to operate the sale of draw games and eInstant games on its own digital platform.

The bill would have also required the lottery commission to establish a retailer incentive program to encourage brick-and-mortar retailers to promote the digital lottery, as well as create a voluntary exclusion program for added levels of player safety.

While the bill passed a committee vote of 9-3 to advance to the full House on Jan. 8, but it was not listed on Thursday's House calendar. Manning confirmed it had been removed from consideration in the current legislative session.

"It didn't have enough support, really, from either caucus on the concept," Manning said to the Indiana Capital Chronicle. "I don't think I could have changed one word in the bill to gain any more votes. It's just the idea itself. We're clearly not ready, as a Legislature, to move any further on any forms of online gambling."

According to a financial analysis of the bill, the Lottery would have begun its online operations sometime in 2027, launching a projection that would have potentially seen extra revenue anywhere between $314 million to $629 million per year. This would tack on an additional $31.4 million to $94.3 million to the Hoosier Lottery's overall profits.

The report mentions that online lottery sales "could have an impact on Indiana casinos," but "it is more likely to impact traditional lottery."

Manning said it was "a shame" the bill did not advance further "because it's one way to get additional state revenue without raising taxes, and we have very few ways to do that."

"I was hopeful that that argument would help, but it did not," he added in his conversation with the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

But House Speaker Todd Huston said he was unconvinced.

"Gaming policy shouldn't be done for the sake of revenue," Huston argued. "It should be done because you think it's the right public policy, and we've never chased revenue in the past. I think it would be a mistake to do it now."

As for now, Indiana will not be joining the 18 states that currently offer direct online lottery sales.

Manning thinks that the bill's repeated failure has something to do with concerns over online sports betting, which was legalized in Indiana in 2019, namely that sales threaten to detract from casinos and foster a greater risk for gambling addiction.

"Sports wagering, having gone so early and Indiana being one of the earliest states to do that, I think that's hurt our argument for further forms of online gaming, because a lot of members don't like the impacts," he said during his interview with the media outlet. "They don't like seeing the advertisements and those sorts of things."