Controversial changes to Indiana's gaming tax made in a House committee were taken out of a bill on the House floor Tuesday.
An amendment in the Ways and Means committee to gaming legislation last week eliminated the state's admissions tax, changed the wagering tax and forced communities with casinos to renegotiate local agreements with those gaming facilities.
Those changes could have cost local communities tens of millions of dollars.
Ways and Means Chair Tim Brown, who crafted the original amendment, then offered an amendment on the House floor to remove his tax changes from the bill. But he notes issues such as the admissions tax won't simply go away.
"I think it's an outdated measurement of how we need to look at traffic and attendance patterns at these casinos as they move forward, so we'll study it," Brown says.
Under Brown's amendment, all the tax changes will be sent to a summer study committee for further scrutiny.
Another one of the tentpoles of the legislation – the possibility of live dealers at racinos – was also taken out and then put back into the bill on the House floor Tuesday.
Many of the state's riverboats had concerns about the addition in recent years of electronic table games at Indiana's two racetrack casinos. They took further issue with a proposal in gaming legislation to allow table games and live dealers at the racinos.
An amendment offered by House Ways and Means Chair Tim Brown took live dealers out of the bill.
Republican Representative Sean Eberhart, whose district includes one of the racinos, then offered an amendment to put them back in. He says live dealers have been part of the bill from the beginning:
"For us to remove a major, major component of the bill in a second reading amendment I believe is making a decision that just doesn't need to be made at this point," Eberhart says.
The amendment was approved 76 to 22.
The gaming bill is up for passage by the House Wednesday.
