Fort Wayne Pro-Casino PAC Raises $516K Ahead of Northeast Indiana's November 3 Referendum
A political action committee backing a new casino in northeast Indiana has reported raising $516,000 so far this year, with $500,000 of that coming from a single donor: Richard Byers, the former president of Automotive Color & Supply Corp. According to a campaign finance report covered by Fort Wayne ABC affiliate WPTA 21Alive, the group, Advance Fort Wayne, has spent more than $123,000 on pro-casino advertising as voters in three counties prepare to decide the issue on Election Day.
What's actually on the ballot
Voters in Allen, DeKalb, and Steuben counties will each face a local referendum on November 3 asking whether to permit inland casino gambling in their county. Under the structure reported locally, a "yes" vote doesn't guarantee a casino — it only makes a county eligible to be considered, since the state is expected to approve only one of the three counties for the project. That's created a competitive dynamic between the three communities, each weighing the economic case for hosting a casino against the uncertainty of whether their own "yes" vote would even be the one that counts if a neighboring county also passes its referendum.
The fundraising picture so far
Advance Fort Wayne's $516,000 haul, with the bulk of it from one donor, puts the pro-casino side well ahead financially heading into the final weeks of the campaign. The reporting available does not identify any organized opposition PAC or its fundraising totals, and it isn't yet clear from public reporting whether Byers or Automotive Color & Supply Corp. has a direct financial stake in a casino project, as opposed to a general economic-development interest in the region.
Why it matters to the industry
Local ballot fights like this one are becoming a more common path to new casino licenses in states that cap the number of available permits, as Indiana does here. For operators watching the space, the outcome determines not just whether a new property gets built, but which of three competing local markets ends up hosting it — a decision that, once made, tends to be durable given how rarely state legislatures revisit casino license caps once they're set.