Courtesy of: http://www.courier-journal.com
By Grace Schneider
Community leaders and residents in Harrison County will be asked to share their views about the impact of the Caesars casino during meetings next week in Corydon.
Comments from the sessions, to be conducted by consultants working for the Indiana Gaming Commission, will be incorporated into an analysis that gambling regulators will use this fall to evaluate Caesars' request to renew its state-issued license.
All 10 Indiana casinos undergo investigations before re-licensing. Licenses are renewed after a casino's first five years in business, and thereafter at three-year intervals.
The commission renewed Caesars' license in 2003 and is expected to consider its renewal application in November.
No riverboat's application for renewal has ever been denied, but Indiana law requires a review of the operator's financial viability and its key executives, as well as its impact on the region, including any regulatory problems.
Laura Littlepage, a researcher with the Center for Urban Policy and the Environment at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, contacted Harrison County leaders late last month asking for an accounting of how casino-tax revenue was spent from 2003 through 2005.
Harrison County Council President Gary Davis said he and county Commissioner J.R. Eckart are compiling the spending information.
Regulators also want to know that the riverboat is fulfilling its mission of boosting the area's economic development, a key goal when lawmakers legalized casino gambling in 1993, said Jennifer Arnold, the gaming commission's deputy director.
Harrison County political leaders, agency directors and several nonprofit groups, including the Harrison County Community Foundation, are being invited to a focus-group meeting next Tuesday.
Debbie Wilson, of the Indianapolis-based consulting firm Engaging Solutions, a subcontractor to the urban policy center, will conduct the session and a public-outreach meeting that evening.
Wilson said the idea is to gather comments about the casino's impact. Those will be included in the policy center's analysis.
The consultants also will conduct a random survey of 200 Harrison County households .
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