For Immediate Release May 3, 2005

For More Information Contact: Marilyn Yurk 317-261-3047 myurk@iupui.edu

State Awards Gaming Research Contract to Center for Urban Policy and the Environment

INDIANAPOLIS - The state of Indiana has awarded a contract totaling nearly $400,000 to the Center for Urban Policy and the Environment at IUPUI to analyze the economic, fiscal, and social impacts of Indiana riverboat casinos on their local communities and the state of Indiana.

John Krauss, Center director, announced the two-year award. "The Center has been serving the Indiana Gaming Commission and the citizens of Indiana by conducting original research in gaming since 1993, and this award will enable us to continue to provide that service," Krauss said. To fulfill this contract, Center analysts will be joined by Professors Lawrence DeBoer and Charlene Sullivan at Purdue University.

Under contract, the Center has completed an analysis of every application for a riverboat gaming license submitted to the Indiana Gaming Commission since its inception. In addition to applicant evaluations, the Center has provided the Indiana Gaming Commission with annual evaluations for each casino licensee in the state. Many of these evaluations are available on the Commission's website (www.in.gov/gaming).

The Center maintains an unbiased approach and will not conduct research for any gaming corporation within the industry itself. Rather, it works with the Indiana Gaming Commission to evaluate license applications and annual renewals from the vantage point of a strictly non-partisan and non-ideological organization.

Also known for its overall gambling research, the Center has produced numerous overall articles, reports, and presentations about gaming. It staffed the Governor's Gambling Impact Study Commission, and one of its most important efforts was a 390-page report in 1999, entitled, Report to the Governor: The Social, Fiscal, and Economic Impacts of Legalized Gambling in Indiana.

A more recent report, Riverboat Gambling in Indiana: Analysis of Impacts, published in 2004, can be accessed via the Center's website. This report compared riverboat gambling in Indiana with other states in terms of gaming revenue, employment, and taxes in order to determine the relative scope of casino gaming in Indiana.  The analysts then compared the tourism, employment, fiscal, and economic impacts of nine Indiana riverboats.

The Center for Urban Policy and the Environment is a nonpartisan applied research organization in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. For more information, contact the Center at 261-3000, or visit the Center's Web site (http://www.urbancenter.iupui.edu). ###