Indiana Riverboat Gambling Act Limits Casino Sites

Indiana Code § 4-33-6-1 does the zoning nobody else can: it names the only cities and counties in the state where a casino may ever be sited, and no local zoning board can add one. The commission may issue not more than eleven (11) owner's licenses total, and subsection (a) allocates them by name: two riverboats in or from the city of Gary, one from Hammond, one from East Chicago, one for a city in a Lake Michigan-contiguous county that isn't Gary, Hammond, or East Chicago, five split among the Ohio River counties of Vanderburgh, Harrison, Switzerland, Ohio, and Dearborn, one inland casino in Vigo County, and, added by P.L.77-2026, one more inland casino in Allen, DeKalb, or Steuben County. No county outside that list qualifies, no matter how a local council votes.

Landing on the list isn't enough. IC 4-33-6-19 requires that before the commission can issue a license or sign an operating-agent contract in a county contiguous to the Ohio River, a county with a historic hotel district, or a smaller Lake Michigan county, the county's voters must have approved riverboat gambling at a referendum, the license authority in § 4-33-6-1 and the local-approval gate in § 4-33-6-19 work together as the state's siting scheme.

Subsection (c) locks each licensee to the county where its riverboat was docked as of January 1, 2007; a licensed owner cannot move gaming operations to a different county even if that county is on the eligible list. Riverboat-to-inland-casino conversions run through IC 4-33-6.5, 4-33-6.7, and 4-33-6.8, but stay inside the same county. The Indiana Gaming Commission administers every owner's license issued under this chapter.

Operating or licensing a casino outside these eleven allocated slots isn't a local zoning question: it falls entirely outside the commission's statutory authority, so no city or county can approve one by variance or special-use permit. Inside an eligible county, § 4-33-6-19 blocks licensure until voters approve gambling by referendum, and § 4-33-6-1(c) bars a licensee from relocating its riverboat to a different county once docked. The Indiana Gaming Commission enforces the license roster and can deny, suspend, or revoke a license for violating these siting and relocation limits.