ANDERSON — If Hoosier Park Racing and Casino doesn’t see some form of relief from a crushing licensing fee and tax rate, it could be forced to resort to one of a variety of options to maintain its profitability, including bankruptcy.

Hoosier Park General Manager Jim Brown did not want to speculate on the options the racino could take, but in a message to media outlets on Friday, Indiana Gaming Commission Director Ernie Yelton said without relief, bankruptcy was imminent.

“I was repeating what representatives of (Hoosier Park parent company) Centaur (Gaming) have been suggesting to particular legislators,” Yelton said. “We don’t take a position one way or another.”

Brown said Indiana’s $250 million licensing fee was the highest in the country; the next highest is Pennsylvania with $50 million.

“Kentucky is headed into a special session to look at gaming,” he said. “They are looking at significantly lower license fees and tax rates for any gaming facilities in the state of Kentucky.”

Brown said Hoosier Park and Indiana’s other racino, Indiana Live in Shelbyville, were not even on the same playing field as riverboat casinos in Indiana.

“There are 11 riverboat casinos in the state of Indiana, and they did not pay any license fee and they had a gaming tax rate of 20 percent,” he said. “We paid $250 million, and our tax and fee rate as a percentage of our revenue is almost 50 percent. We are seeking the ability to be on a more level playing field with our competitors in Indiana.”

State Rep. Scott Reske, D-Pendleton, said any gaming legislation put forth in this General Assembly’s current special session would have to be careful not to harm other casinos in its attempt to help the two racinos.

“Whatever the Legislature does to Hoosier Park and Indiana (Live), it’s not isolated,” he said. “What you have to make sure is that there’s no detrimental negative effect to the other casinos throughout the state. Whatever solutions there are to correct for the governor’s licensing fee being too high, the solution has to be one that does not have a domino effect for other gaming facilities.”

Still, Reske said the licensing fee was too high to begin with and that local legislators cried out two years ago for the fee to be lowered.

“Everybody that analyzed this all said $150 million should be (the fee),” he said. “(Gov. Mitch Daniels) insisted $250 million and everybody told him it was way too high and it would create a debt service to the casinos that was too high.

“The governor was wrong and now Madison County is paying the price.”

Daniels spokeswoman Jane Jankowski said the $250 million licensing fee was not Daniels’ idea, but rather that it had originated with the Legislature.

“I believe that the governor suggested that the licenses be auctioned, and the Legislature decided to set a flat fee,” she said.

Jankowski would not comment on why Reske might have said Daniels was responsible for the $250 million fee. She said Daniels did not have plans to present any gaming proposals in the special session.