Live Dealers At Racetrack Casino Table Games Coming In January

Indiana’s two racetrack casinos will begin offering live table games at the start of 2020.

The Gaming Commission approved those new offerings this week.

The racinos long asked the legislature to allow them to have live dealers for their table games, arguing they were more appealing to players than electronic games. Riverboats pushed back, worried live table games at racinos would siphon off their customers.

The General Assembly in 2015 authorized the games at racinos – beginning in 2021. The delay was in part to satisfy then-Gov. Mike Pence, who was uncomfortable with what he viewed as an expansion of gaming.

But the major gaming legislation approved earlier this year moved that date up to Jan. 1, 2020. Both the racinos – in Anderson and Shelbyville – will begin offering live dealer table games on that date.

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Fiscal analysts project the new games will generate more than $15 million for the state in the first couple of years.

Contact Brandon at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.