Former Indiana lawmaker pleads guilty in Spectacle Entertainment case
A former Indiana state representative will plead guilty in connection with the Spectacle Entertainment corruption scandal, U.S. prosecutors announced.
Republican Sean Eberhart, 57, is the third lawmaker to plead guilty in the glasses incident. Last year, Spectacle co-founder John Keeler pleaded guilty to providing funds to former Republican state Sen. Brent Waltz in exchange for preferential treatment.
Eberhardt represented Central Indiana House District 57 for 16 years. He is said to have accepted money and promises of future employment from the eyewear company. This was in exchange for approval and votes for a 2019 bill that authorized operators to transfer two gambling licenses from Lake Michigan casinos to downtown Gary, Indiana. One of these later became the Northern Indiana Hard Rock Casino.
The Impact of Touting
At the time, Eberhart was a member of the House Public Policy Committee. He used this position to reduce the transfer fee from $100 million to $20 million. He also pushed for tax incentives that benefited the spectacle, according to prosecutors.
Eberhart was communicating via text messages with a person at Spectacle, referred to in court documents as "Person A."
In February 2019, A. Eberhart was promised a job at Spectacle worth approximately $350,000 per year, including stock in the company. In April of that year, Eberhart promised he would "make amends" with Individual A, according to court documents.
Create Wonders
Spectacle Gaming, originally known as Centaur Gaming, operates casinos and off-track betting facilities in Indiana. These include the Indianapolis Casino and Racetrack in Shelbyville and Hoosier Park in Anderson.
Centaur founder Rod Radcliff, a longtime casino executive, co-founded Spectacle with Keeler, who serves as Centaur vice president and general counsel, and Terre Haute businessman Greg Gibson. The company and its properties were acquired by Caesars Entertainment in 2018.
The new company purchased the Majestic Star Casino and two adjacent riverboat casinos, one of which was once owned by Donald Trump and was known as the Trump Princess.
Majestic Star has two gaming licenses for each of its two ships, and Spectacle has begun applying to move the licenses to the more lucrative downtown area while also working with Hard Rock International to bring a branded casino to the area.
Landscape Reorganization
In January 2020, less than a month after the joint Spectacle and Hard Rock project broke ground, state regulators announced that Keeler was under investigation for funneling corporate money to politicians.
Keeler and Ratcliffe were eventually "removed" from Spectacle, and the company reorganized to become minority shareholders in the Hard Rock Casino.
Keeler was sentenced to two months in prison after he was found to have transferred $41,000 of Centaur's funds to a political consultant working for Rep. Waltz's failed 2016 congressional campaign.
Walz spent seven months in prison after pleading guilty to two felony counts of offering and receiving monetary donations and lying to the FBI.
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Source: www.casino.org
