You Want Some Pull-Tabs with That?

Just as notions of approving casino gambling seem to be “on life support” in Kentucky, the General Assembly in Indianapolis seems determined to blow the doors off any semblance of limiting gambling in Indiana with idiotic and stupid measures such as pull-tabs.

Why don’t we just let bars have slot machines, too?

And maybe let them run blackjack games also.

Heck, we can be like Nevada, with slots in the airports, slots in the rest areas on the highways, slots in fast food places, and slots everywhere else.

Not only is this sort of thing a massive expansion of gambling, it is effectively the granting of a market exclusivity and anti-competition measure.

All of this is so that a company that prints pull tabs (apparently the only one in Indiana) can be guaranteed 25% of the new market that will be generated.

Hidden within this bill is a provision (Article 36, Chapter 5, Section 5, Subsection C) that requires that a set percentage of all pull-tabs sold in Indiana be also printed by companies based in Indiana:

a distributor must obtain at least twenty-five percent (25%) of the type II gambling games purchased by the distributor from a manufacturer that is domiciled in Indiana.

This measure was crafted by lobbyists for the primary benefit one of the only companies (if not the only company) based Indiana that actually prints pull-tabs.

This legislation will be a staggering windfall for them, as it will give them a ready market close at hand composed of a guaranteed proportion of sales for the entire state.

That’s insane.

This post is also available at Hoosierpundit.