Mays, William v. Trump IN, Inc

TERENCE T. EVANS, Circuit Judge.

It was extremely controversial, and it passed over the veto of then-Governor Evan Bayh, but Indiana enacted legislation in 1993 permitting, for the first time, riverboat gambling in several Hoosier counties contiguous to Lake Michigan, the Ohio River, and Patoka Lake. Two of several possible gambling licenses were earmarked for Gary, a troubled city in the shadow of a megatropolis — Chicago.

Promoters of gambling argued that it would bring loads of cash into communities like Gary and spark an economic renaissance. This was welcome news for a smokestack-shrouded,…