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Coalition Coming With Bill That Links Lottery To Slot Machines May 13, 2003
The hue and cry has yet to subside from the announcement, before the legislative session began, of a plan to put 18,000 slot machines in bars, bowling alleys and bingo halls across the state.
But the Entertainment Industry Coalition, the group of nontribal businesses and charities that pushed the plan, went back to the drawing board, reloaded and will launch a new campaign today.
The coalition has scheduled a midday Capitol press conference to unveil a lottery-based version of its earlier plan, House Bill 1948. The new plan, which has yet to be formally introduced and has no bill number, makes a couple of key concessions that supporters say will make it more appealing to lawmakers, their constituents and the budget writers who have spent the past week in closed-door negotiations in Olympia.
"We're basically saying: It's there, it's available, it's bipartisan, and it has the votes to pass, at least in the House," said the coalition's lead lobbyist, Lincoln Ferris, who has spent the past several weeks honing the bill by bouncing it off lottery officials, representatives from Gov. Gary Locke's office and key lawmakers.
Gamblers would likely see the same shiny, blinking machines if either plan became law. But under the new bill, state, county and local governments would keep 7 cents more of each dollar inserted into the machines.
The entertainment coalition predicts that the 40 percent cut that would go to government would mean $275 million - including $30 million to host municipalities - for the 2003-2005 budget cycle, which could account for most of the new revenue in a compromise spending plan said to be under consideration by negotiators.
The 60 percent cut that the business or nonprofits hosting the machines would get is more than they get in most states that run video lottery games, according to lottery deputy director Kathy Kreiter.
Retailers in Oregon keep 32 percent of proceeds, but Kreiter pointed out that the Oregon state lottery supplies the machines. "In this (coalition) bill, the retailers have to pay for the machines, so that's a little different," she said.
In Oregon, "They're technically slot machines - you're actually playing against the (individual) machine," she said. Under the coalition bill, "You're playing against a computer program," linking many machines, like in tribal casinos, she said. "It's just like a scratch game," she said, adding that the lottery has some "very technical" concerns about the bill but hasn't taken a stance on it.
At the end of the special session, Locke would not dismiss the idea of such a plan out of hand, saying only, "My understanding is that there's no support for that in the House and the Senate." The changes from HB 1948 likely won't endear the bill to lawmakers fearful of stepping on toes of the state's Indian tribes and their $500 million a year gambling operations.
But Rep. Jeff Gombosky (D-Spokane), a supporter of HB 1948, had predicted that the lottery involvement would quell some lawmakers' concerns about the social costs of expanded gambling.
It shouldn't, former Gov. Mike Lowry said Monday. There will be the same problems with addiction, he asserted, adding that all it would do "is put the state in a partnership of raising revenue by expanding gambling."
Lowry has campaigned in Olympia this year with Citizens Against Gambling Expansion, a formidable group of current and former public officials who opposed HB 1948 and also a proposal to increase the frequency of the lottery's keno drawings from once a day to once every four or five minutes.
"This takes the worst of both (plans)," Lowry said of the new
proposal, which he said he'd lobby against just as vigorously as he did
against keno and HB 1948. Most Indian tribes will likely have the same
problems with the new bill as they did with HB 1948, said Mike Moran,
a lobbyist for the Samish Indian Nation.
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