Retirees from the Midwest will soon have more casino options to choose from when considering where to blow their social security checks.  Ohio voters approved four casino licenses costing $250 million each to help close a budget gap.   Indiana officials had expressed concern ahead of Tuesday’s vote over the impact that Ohio casinos will have on the bottom line of state and local budgets that depend heavily on casino tax revenue.

Gaming experts said Ohio casinos would likely cut into Southeastern Indiana’s gambling market considerably while having a more targeted impact on Kentucky’s horse track gambling.

One study estimated that Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg, Ind., Grand Victoria Casino in Rising Sun, Ind., and Belterra Casino near Vevay, Ind., would lose 38 percent of their traffic and $260million in wagering revenue with the opening of casinos in Cincinnati and Columbus.

Those losses — combined with a smaller hit to the new Hoosier Park casino at the racetrack in Anderson, Ind. — could cut gambling tax revenue in Indiana by $100million. — Courier Journal

The conventional wisdom at the Statehouse is that the only answer to our state’s overdependence on casino tax revenue is to increase our dependence on casino tax revenue through a legislative expansion of gambling at the state’s two horse tracks.  That should fix things quite nicely… until those bastards in Illinois open a racino in Kankakee.  Dah!