In a risky play, the Missouri Senate voted upon and passed to the General Assembly a bill that would boost Show-Me State casinos’ ability to extend credit. Mind you, all the risk is on the casino. It could lend as much as $10,000 to “qualifying, sober patrons” but the loans will be unsecured. Play at Missouri casinos has been in the doldrums, so perhaps industry leaders think this will bring the punters back. The legislation is the brainchild of Pinnacle Entertainment Executive Vice President of Government Relations & Public Affairs Troy Stremming. Since Stremming is one of the most durable and effective political actors in the industry, we like his chances of shepherding this bill to passage.
Transparency rules in Delaware and New Jersey mean that the Internal Revenue Service knows just how much you’re making from Internet gambling. (Nevada has no comparable agreement but the relevant records can be summonsed.) Winnings will be withheld until the player provides the needed tax information to the casino, which forwards it to Uncle Sam. Even if you win in Nevada but aren’t from here, you’ll be on the hook in your home state. No wonder that the National Conference of State Legislatures has passed a resolution expressing strong opposition to congressional efforts to ban online gambling.
“Respect the sovereignty of the states,” is the message from the assembly of solons who dismissed attempts to rewrite the 1961 Wire Act as “merely a solution seeking a problem.” In the meantime, add Mississippi to the list of states that are looking toward Internet gambling as a fiscal fix. The effectiveness of geolocation and age-verification technologies will be at the top of the Bayou State study group’s syllabus.
Congratulations to Saratoga Raceway & Casino. Your revenues from the last fiscal year were flat and your city council has voted unanimously against your seeking full-fledged casino status. Nice folks, huh? For the record, Saratoga grossed $159 million. State leader Resorts World New York took in $792.5 million, a 14% increase.
Federal-level politicians rarely intervene in intrastate gambling issues but Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL) is opining on four Greene County casinos that were shut down and cleaned out by Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange. Sewell argues that this is a violation of the Cotton State constitution, which permits electronic bingo. Calling it “a potential voting-rights infringement,” Sewell said she stood with the casino workers newly dispossessed of jobs. Law enforcement personnel, meanwhile, maintained that the machines bore no resemblance to bingo as we know it, requiring one push of a button for a momentary “game.” (Slot machines are verboten in Alabama.)
