For legal reasons, the information discussed here are merely allegations, with all information on the cases obtained directly from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Indiana.

When Sean Eberhart accepted a job offer a few years ago from a little-known gaming company, Spectacle Entertainment, there was no way he could know that it would destroy any hopes for online casinos in the States seven years later.

The deal was obviously trouble from the start, which Eberhart knew more than most; he was a member of the Indiana House of Representatives at the time. More importantly, though, he served on the House Committee on Public Policy, which handled all matters concerning casinos and gambling in the state of Indiana.

Despite this, Eberhart took the deal. When a bill passed through the House, it caught the eye of the Indiana Gaming Commission, which launched a lengthy investigation. There are multiple names, dates, and figures - so everything to do with the case is explained neatly below.

Let’s start from the beginning, shall we?

2015 - Indiana State Senator Brent Waltz is running for US Congress. This was supported by $40,500 in illegal contributions which were tracked back to New Centaur, a casino company. The funds were handled by Kelley Rogers, who spread out the donations so no-one would suspect their origin. This was led by John Keeler, the Vice President and General Counsel of New Centaur.

Why did Centaur do this? - They were trying to get a bill passed, which would allow for live table games to be offered at its horse-track casinos located in Shelbyville and Anderson. If Waltz had been successful in his campaign, he could’ve approved the legislation for them.

How did Centaur do this? - Keeler moved $41,000 in corporate funds from Centaur to Rodgers. $25,000 of this would go to a local political party committee in Marion County, Indiana, while the rest of it was spread out across fake donors. Keeler then filed this as a deductible business expense with his taxes.

2018 - Caesars Entertainment acquires Centaur for $1.7bn, which Keeler and several other executives pool to found Spectacle Entertainment.

Late 2018, 2019 - Spectacle Entertainment wanted to buy the licenses for two casinos which were located besides Lake Michigan. Once they had the licenses, they would then relocate the casinos to somewhere more illustrious. However, this required approval from both sides of the houses of the Indiana legislature, then signed by the Governor.

2019 - Sean Eberhart, a member of the Indiana House of Representatives, entered into a collaboration with owners of Spectacle Entertainment. He used his position to get this approval for Spectacle Entertainment.

Let’s look at the details.

According to the federal charges, Eberhart was approached by ‘Individual A’ of Spectacle Entertainment. While this individual remains unnamed for now, Spectacle has since been forced to cut ties with both John Keeler and Rod Ratcliff following this investigation.

This is where the job offer comes in - this Individual A offered Eberhart a job at Spectacle Entertainment in the future, if he could pass a bill for them. Eberhart accepted the offer, got the bill passed, reduced the fees for Spectacle from $100 million down to $20 million, then added additional tax benefits for them.

As if he didn’t leave enough evidence of all of this, Eberhart sent multiple text messages to Individual A, talking about how he was ‘making it right’ for them.

This resulted in a very lengthy investigation…

2020 - The Indiana Gaming Commission demands that Spectacle cuts all ties with Keeler.

2021 - The Indiana Gaming Commission demands that Spectacle cuts ties with CEO and Chairman, Rod Ratcliff. The Commission permanently revoked Ratcliff’s license for the role he played in the scandal. However, Spectacle initially refused to do so, resulting in a $530,000 fine and a pause on its major deal with Hard Rock.

2022 - John Keeler and Brent Waltz pled guilty and were sentenced to Federal Prison for the money transferred in 2015 - and fined $55,000 and $40,500 respectively.

2023 - Friday, November 10, Sean Eberhart pled guilty to the part he played in all of this.

Why were such high hopes placed on Indiana?

Indiana has been at the forefront of betting from the start and was one of the first states to actually allow wagering when the legislation lifted. The US Supreme Court lifted the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 on May 14, 2018.

Only one year later, Indiana legalized it for the state and in one of the shortest law-to-launch periods in the country, its first sportsbook opened in September. Unlike most other states, it launches online sports betting almost immediately, with DraftKings and BetRivers going live within a month.

2019 - Sports betting goes live in the state, with DraftKings, BetRives, FanDuel and BetAmerica.

2020 - Five more sportsbooks open, including BetMGM, Caesars and PointsBet, and almost every eligible retail location has one. Two big teams in the state also partner with operators, with the Colts backed by DraftKings and PointsBet, while the Pacers were backed by PointsBet and Caesars. $2 billion in wagers are placed.

2021 - Four more sportsbooks open, including Bally Bet, Betway and WynnBet. Almost $4 billion in wagers are placed.

2024 - A few names have come and gone, but a total of 12 sportsbooks are active in Indiana and the state has surpassed $5 billion in wagers since sports betting went live.

So it’s no wonder that many companies were looking to Indiana to see when the state would legalize online casinos. At the time of writing, only six US states allow iGaming, those being Connecticut, Delaware, West Virginia, Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Out of these, the last three tend to generate over $1 billion in gross gaming revenue annually.

In 2022, the Indiana Gaming Commission even commissioned Spectrum Gaming Group (NOT Spectacle Entertainment that we mentioned earlier!) to conduct a study on the potential of iGaming in the state.

The company found that Indiana could expect to hit $469 million in iGaming revenue in year one, $663 million by year two and $830 million by year three. They also state that, “based on results from the six iGaming states, Spectrum does not expect iGaming to negatively impact Indiana casino revenues.”

So, how did this kill all momentum for online casino licences across the US in 2024?

Well, there aren’t actually many states with noticeable momentum to pass a new iGaming license.

Iowa technically has a bill that’s ‘Active’ in the House, but the House Representative has said quite clearly that he won't advance it any further.

Wyoming started out with great momentum, but the bill failed in February, meaning that it won’t be seen again this year.

Maryland had big highs and lows, but essentially its bill died when the Senate Budget & Taxation Committee was stalled. It got left out at the last minute. Meaning we won’t see it again any time soon.

Maine was the second-strongest contender this year, but the bill failed by five votes. While this is a tiny amount, a fail is still a fail. The bill can try again next year.

The state with the most momentum - Indiana - unfortunately was still grappling with the political scandal that spilled out from the last sentencing towards the end of 2023. The state ultimately decided that it would be futile to try and win trust over iGaming legislation, when it was still recovering from Federal-levels of corruption regarding the casino industry.

If Indiana wasn’t still in the shadow of John Keeler and Sean Eberhart, then it’s fair to say that the state could’ve launched online casinos this year. It had clearly been setting this up for some time, even conducting a study on how much revenue it could expect, alongside taxes and the best strategies for it to use.

Hopefully, there'll be better luck in 2025...