Zoann Attwood, representing Montana State Lottery service provider intralot, presented Atty. Gen. Mike McGrath a check for $25,000 at the opening of the Nov. 17 Gaming Advisory Council (GAC) meeting at the Gambling Control Division headquarters in Helena.
Attwood said the check, intended to help the Montana Council on Problem Gambling fulfill its mission to help those with gambling compulsions, demonstrated intralot's commitment to the state and its people, and its intent to see the MCPG "keep up the good work."
intralot joins other gaming business groups including the Montana Tavern Association, Gaming Industry Association, Montana Coin Machine Operators Association, Town Pumps and some gaming machine manufacturers, in funding the MCPG which provides therapy through licensed clinicians to those experiencing gambling problems, and provides training programs for therapists wishing to gain gambling addiction treatment certifications.
Chairman Rep. John Witt opened the Nov. 17 meeting of the Gaming Advisory Council with some good natured ribbing of U of M Grizzly fans, graciously returned by MSU Bobcat fans in attendance. The Grizzly boosters were vindicated in Missoula the next day when the Griz topped the Cats.
Even Atty. Gen. Mike McGrath, on hand for introductory remarks, joined in the fun. He also thanked members of the council for their work, particularly Rep. Witt, then congratulated council member Bill Thomas for winning a legislative seat in Great Falls. "This council really has made a difference," McGrath said.
He then expressed hope a sound bill to revise the live poker statute could come out of the council. One later did, but only after undergoing substantial revision.
The council spent two hours examining the poker bill's 17 primary provisions, one-by-one, then stripped out the key provisions calling for increased fees on dealers, cardroom contractors and table permits, as well as $800 pot limits.
Working from a numbered sheet provided by the Gambling Control Division, the council opted to approve provisions that would: eliminate from regulation some social card games such as cribbage and pinochle; require dealers applying for a license to personally appear and to wear their license when working; require game and credit gambling rules to be posted where card games are conducted; provide for charity tournaments to be conducted under licensure; allow part of a tournament prize to be a buy-in at another tournament; limit tournament prizes to a 100 percent of buy-ins not to exceed $2,500 per player; increased the cardroom contractor license fee to $500 with no additional fees for multiple locations; clarify that card tournaments cannot be conducted as part of charitable "casino night" activity; include rule making authority to regulate "house" players.
The council eliminated provisions that would: allow electronic facsimile poker tables; increase table permit fees, currently at $250 for a first table and $500 for additional tables, to $500 for the first table and $750 for additional tables; equally share additional permit fees with local government; increase dealer license fees from the current $109 to $250 and $200 to renew (died on a tie); bring $300 live card game pot limits in line with machine poker at $800; increase tournament license fees to $50 per table (died for lack of a second); change the statute regarding how the allowed 60 tournament days could be configured (died for lack of a motion); and provide for multi-location tournaments (died for lack of a motion).
Both the Gaming Industry Association and the Montana Tavern Association representatives said their boards had instructed them to oppose the fee increases if the statute weren't modified in ways that would allow dealers and operators to recoup the cost increases.
Council member Steve Morris said marginal, smaller operators would have to fold their card games if the fee increases were implemented without the other compensatory provisions.
Audience member Sandy Jones, representing the Montana Tavern Association, said she believed the live poker Texas Hold "Em craze had peaked and was subsiding, so wasn't sure the increased regulatory costs would be sustained.
Gaming Industry Association Executive Director Rich Miller concurred.
"The live poker bubble burst when Congress outlawed internet gambling Sept. 29," Miller said. "The internet and televised poker brought this growth. By July next year, a lot of the tables (in Montana) will fall by the wayside and we'll be back to where we were--in a steady decline."
Gambling Control Division Administrator Gene Huntington told the council he would present a budget that would allow for two additional investigators he said are required to adequately police dealers and card games by using funds already on hand from machine license fees. But he warned the operator license application process could be slowed if funds were expended in this manner.
Earlier in the day, state Liquor Division chief Shauna Helfert said her department planned on carrying legislation to revise statute to bring it in line with a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision that prohibits states from discriminating between in-state and out-of-state wine producers when it comes to distribution.
She said individuals and retailers who take direct shipments from wineries are required to report purchases to the state and pay taxes due.
She also said the state requirement that liquor licensees be residents had been overturned by courts and revisions are now required to make the statute compliant. Helfert said she was aware of four applications from out of state, two of which had been approved with the others pending.
Another revision would clarify which courts have jurisdiction in liquor matters.
In response to a question, Helfert said she would need a sworn complaint before her division would investigate allegations that some brewery tasting rooms are, contrary to law, operating like pubs.
Just before the lunch break, Huntington sought the council's views on a proposal to fund a responsible gambling awareness campaign in March of 2008 during National Problem Gambling Awareness Month.
Huntington said Gambling Control and the State Lottery would budget money for such a program and he was looking to industry to shoulder one-third of the cost.
Miller, who also chairs the industry's research and education organization, told the council that several industry groups had pledged support for the effort including the Gaming Industry Association, Montana Tavern Association and Town Pumps, with several others pending.
Miller said response to the campaign would be measured by monitoring traffic on the problem gambler help hotline and through the Montana Council on Problem Gambling.
After a brief break for lunch, Chairman Witt asked for discussion on a proposal to revise the bingo statute. A bill has been drafted, but Billings bingo operator Mark Ehli suggested the bill should also include authority for Gambling Control to routinely review proposed variations on bingo games, then approve or disapprove them.
The GAC voted to instead back the bill as currently drafted.
Gambling Control's Al Arvish was on hand to brief the council on the state of the advanced development of an internet based automated accounting and reporting system for the state's gaming machines.
He said beta testing at several sites has shown the system works, but the division now faced loading all the old data from the old system into the new database, which remained several weeks out.
He said quarterly tax reports the end of December will be manually entered but will go into the new system. Operators will be running their manual systems in parallel with the automated system probably through the last quarter of Fiscal Year 2007 (April-June, 2007).
Council member Tim Carson, who has closely followed and participated in the system development, said "testing is looking good and conversion should be a piece of cake."
The division's Kathy Bartsch said the electronic permitting component of the system was progressing with a few "bugs" still being worked out. Tying that element into the state's GenTax system still needs to be configured, too, she said.
Huntington said the Gambling Control Division has sent notices to 32 non-tribal operators on the Flathead reservation warning them they will have to unplug machines and remove them from the reservation within 15 days if no new compact or extension is signed with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes by November 30.
Hunting said the Governor's latest offer to the tribe was to extend the compact through May 1, after the Legislature adjourns, but no response had yet been received.
He said the Crow Tribe had requested negotiations with the first session set to take place the third week of November. He said the administration had met with the Blackfeet in September but that no further sessions has been scheduled. Progress in ongoing sessions with the Chippewa Cree of the Ft. Belknap Reservation has been substantial, Huntington said.
Huntington reiterated his position that the state has no authority to intervene in alleged gambling violations on Indian lands unless a state-tribal compact is in place. Thus, when he'd received information alleging irregularities at the Blackfeet Glacier Peaks Casino, he was restricted to passing the information to the U.S. Attorney's office.
Huntington said he had personally visited the casino and only seen legal Class II games, but had received a letter from a tribal member speculating about illegal activity. He added that the Indian Gaming Regulatory Commission had been notified but he was unaware what, if any, action might have been taken.
Huntington said he thought the new federal ban on internet gambling was having an effect, as internet gambling company stocks had dropped dramatically after the legislation passed.
"The rules come out in June and that will determine the ban's effectiveness," he said.
He also noted the new federal law allows for intrastate gambling, or electronic gambling between customers and providers confined within a state's borders, if a state allows it. Montana has prohibited wire gambling, but Nevada has expressly allowed it. Huntington said he thought the intrastate allowance might open a new area requiring regulation and enforcement.
Huntington said gaming machine tax collections for the first quarter Fiscal Year 2007 (July-September 2006) were just $22 short of reaching $15 million, breaking all previous first quarter high marks.
To enthusiastic applause, Huntington also told the council that the division is 100 percent current with its gaming tax audits for the first time, having once been as much as three years behind.
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, Dec., 2006, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.