Both Indiana And Hawaii See New Gambling Bills In Early 2022

• The Indiana House of Representatives sees two potential iGaming bills presented that would bring online casinos to the Hoosier State.
• Hawaii lawmakers present a bill to potentially launch local casinos.

INDIANAPOLIS – As government bodies begin to reconvene for the New Year, new bills are presented. Indiana and Hawaii see bills that would affect their local gambling laws.

Indiana lawmakers are aiming to bring online casinos to the Hoosier State with two bills presented in the House of Representatives.

Meanwhile, Hawaii sees a new bill that would establish a legal gambling commission. This commission would be in charge of the potential gambling market in Hawaii.

Indiana iGaming Incoming?

Indiana has seen major success with online sports betting and local lawmakers are aiming to replicate this success with the addition of online casinos.

The two bills, House Bill 1356 and House Bill 1337 would both allow online casinos to launch but have slightly different regulations proposed.

HB 1356 would grant online licenses to owners of riverboat casinos, racetracks, and hotel resorts while implementing an 18% tax on all interactive gaming.

HB 1337 would see the same licenses be granted but focus heavily on where the taxes would be allocated. Depending on the location of the licensed casino, the funds would be shared between the location of the cities and counties the casino is located and the location the wager was placed.

As these bills are newly presented they could both be altered drastically by the time the House is ready to vote on either if a vote takes place at all. Should either pass, this would greatly affect the Indiana gambling market.

Hawaii Casinos Try Again

This is not the first time that Hawaii lawmakers have attempted to launch a gambling market in the Aloha State and should this bill fail, this will not be the last.

HB 383 would establish a poker commission that would be in charge of overseeing the licensing and operation of all gambling operations in Hawaii including live poker rooms.

This commission would be granted the power to offer licenses to any operation should casino gambling be regulated in Hawaii.

While this particular bill isn’t directly aiming to launch casino gambling, it would lay the groundwork for Hawaii’s gambling market. Since there is no regulated gambling in Hawaii at this time, the commission would serve little purpose until a gambling bill is passed.

Due to the history of how Hawaii locals have treated the thought of online gambling, this bill is also likely to be either voted down or not reviewed by the House in time.