Shackleford criticizes state funding on online gambling advertising compared to public health outreach

Yesterday, State Rep. Robin Shackleford (D-Indianapolis) offered an amendment to House Bill 1078, which would allow the Indiana Lottery to sell lottery tickets online, expanding access to gambling through phones and computers, and reimbursing retailers for advertising online gambling.

Shackleford’s amendment prohibited the lottery commission from adopting rules to compensate retailers for promoting digital lottery games. This amendment would only apply to the new gaming expansion and put guardrails in place for taxpayer dollars.

Shackleford raised concerns about the state’s priorities, noting that Indiana is willing to spend taxpayer dollars to aggressively promote gambling while restricting outreach and public awareness efforts for essential health programs like Medicaid. Shackleford raised the point, the Braun administration recently celebrated that nearly a quarter of a million Hoosiers were losing their health coverage because of the additional red tape and defunding of outreach the legislature put into law last year.

Shackleford highlighted the imbalance between how the state promotes gambling and how it treats public health. The amendment was blocked 63-30.

Shackleford released the following statement on her amendment:

“This amendment was a simple reflection of our values as a state. If the state thinks providing outreach to health insurance is a waste of taxpayer funds, then surely we can agree spending taxpayer money to expand gambling options isn’t a fiscally responsible move. Hoosiers want us here to find ways to solve healthcare costs, lower their utility bills and make life in Indiana better — this amendment does that by protecting taxpayer dollars.”