Indiana iLottery bill dead for 2026 due to lack of support
A legislative proposal to establish online lottery play in Indiana has died for 2026 after the bill’s sponsor, a leading House representative, admitted it simply did not have enough support.
Rep. Ethan Manning’s HB 1078 was sent to the House floor with approved amendments on Jan. 13. The bill, a reworked version of a 2025 proposal, looked to be on the fast track through the state legislature in a short session year but was pulled from the scheduled agenda for the House floor session on Jan. 20 at the last minute.
“It didn’t have enough support, really, from either caucus on the concept,” the House Public Policy Committee Chair told the Indiana Capital Chronicle on Thursday. “I don’t think I could have changed one word in the bill to gain any more votes. It’s just the idea itself. We’re clearly not ready, as a Legislature, to move any further on any forms of online gambling.”
Attempt to bundle iCasino with iLottery deemed violation
HB 1078 would have established onine lottery gaming with a minimum user age of 18. Digital lottery couriers would be prohibited, while the government would be mandated to establish an iLottery voluntary exclusion program.
The 2025 version had legal online casino attached, which Manning surmised was ultimately an impediment to the bill passing. Still, at a committee meeting on Jan. 8, he and some other Public Policy members showed support for adding legal online casino to this year’s bill before the committee approved the legislation without amendment by a 9-3 vote.
Two representatives each proposed amendments to restore online casino language, arguing that such gaming already exists in Indiana without regulatory oversight or tax benefits for the state. However, those suggested amendments were each rejected without votes at the Jan. 13 floor session after they were deemed to violate a state House rule that stipulates that “no motion or proposition on a subject not germane to that under consideration shall be admitted under color of an amendment.”
One amendment that was approved this month would have established a retailer incentive program for retailers that participate in the promotion of digital lottery games, as well as mandating that the lottery commission annually review whether iLottery sales were cannibalizing retail lottery sales.
Has sports betting hurt Indiana gaming?
Indiana wouldn’t have been the only state to legalize online lottery recently. Massachusetts is expected to launch its own iLottery this year after Gov. Maura Healey signed its legalization into law in late 2024.
However, Manning confirmed to the Capital Chronicle that his bill won’t advance this legislative session, and suggested that Indiana’s comparatively long history of sports betting, which it began offering in 2019, may be a thorn in its own side.
“Sports wagering, having gone so early and Indiana being one of the earliest states to do that, I think that’s hurt our argument for further forms of online gaming, because a lot of members don’t like the impacts,” he said. “They don’t like seeing the advertisements and those sorts of things.”
Those comments and the iLottery bill’s withdrawal come after a proposed amendment to add legal online casino to Manning’s HB 1052, a bill that would explicitly ban online sweepstakes gaming, also failed. That bill continues to advance in the House but the iCasino suggestion was not taken up before Public Policy unanimously approved the legislation by a 10-0 vote in a committee hearing before the floor session on Thursday.
https://sbcamericas.com/2026/01/22/indiana-ilottery-bill-dead-2026/