A bill to dramatically expand gambling in Indiana — by legalizing online gaming and online lottery — failed to advance before the legislative session’s first half deadline.

The measure’s author isn’t giving up on the issue.

The online gambling and lottery bill easily advanced out of the House Public Policy Committee this session. But HB 1432 never even got a hearing at its second stop, the House Ways and Means Committee.

House Speaker Todd Huston (R-Fishers) said a bill like that is very complex.

“There’s a lot of different moving parts and I think, you know, just trying to find something that there was some consensus on felt like it was a pretty tough spot to be,” Huston said.

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Bill author Rep. Ethan Manning (R-Logansport) said he doesn’t understand why a bill that would’ve brought in tens of millions of dollars a year in state revenue didn’t get more of a look in a tight budget year.

“There are things that we can do, like gaming, like increasing the cigarette tax and others, that I think we absolutely — by the time we end up this session and finish up the budget, we need to be trying to bring in some more revenue for the state,” Manning said.

Huston is adamant that expanding gaming should be a decision made for policy reasons, not revenue ones.

Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.