GCD establishes time table for automated reporting
Pub Date: 5/1/2008
Huntington said a timetable has been devised for operators who have signed multi-game agreements, which obliged them to begin reporting electronically when a system was available, to begin to come on-line.
He said already 72 percent of machines are being reported electronically via the state's internet system, and that the remaining would be brought on as the division's workload allowed, with the most populous regions targeted first (see Huntington article in the April Tavern Times that set out the specific timetable by region).
Operators will be given six months notice that their time is approaching and GCD personnel will be available to help individual businesses make the transition, Huntington said. An electronic "webinar" tutorial is also available to help businesses walk through the process.
Huntington noted any licensee who had signed the multi-game agreement and was running multi-game machines, but who then opted not to report electronically would have to eventually revert to the old single-game software to remain in compliance.
Some operators are running "several thousand" old single-game machines and never signed an agreement to run multi-game software or to report electronically, Huntington said.
Carson said time and technological changes will continue to drive operators toward electronic reporting. "Operators are replacing old gear or opting for vending," he said. "Let the process move along. Most of the old gear will be gone in two or three years," he predicted.
The council approved the proposed rules to establish electronic reporting timetables by region.
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, May, 2008, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.