By Eric Berman and Liz Thomas
2/1/2010
 Indiana casinos' agreements with local organizations would become public records under a bill working its way through the legislature.
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Casinos are required to funnel some of their income to local groups, under "local development agreements" struck when the riverboats opened.
Former Attorney General Steve Carter sued a for-profit group set up to receive those funds from the Ameristar casino in East Chicago. Most of those agreements are with nonprofits, but Carter's successor Greg Zoeller says they should be open to the public.
"The public has a greater right to know, because those funds were meant for a public purpose: economic development," Zoeller contends. "They shouldn't be allowed to give just a peripheral report.
Zoeller argues the East Chicago controversy and the shady history of gambling in Indiana before the casinos were legalized in 1993 make it even more important that the public have confidence in how the money's being spent.
The legislation is part of a bill that originally would have let lakefront and riverboat casinos move inland, and allowed Gary's two Majestic Star casinos to merge. A Senate committee killed those proposals, though backers hope to revive them in the House.
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