Gaming Advisory Council develops year's agenda
By Cole Boehler
No effective organization can go about accomplishing its mission
without developing a comprehensive agenda first. And that's primarily
what the Gaming Advisory Council (GAC) set out to do —and
accomplished—when it met at the Hilton Garden Inn in Missoula May 19.
But first the Council welcomed back State Senator Joe Tropila (D-Great
Falls), who had left the council early in 2008, but was recently
reappointed by Senate leadership.
In addition, the Council
welcomed Rep. Pat Noonan (D-Butte) who had just been appointed by the
House Speaker. (Watch for a profile of Rep. Noonan in a future edition
of the Montana Tavern Times).
The full Council was
present with the exception of Nick Murnion, Garfield County Attorney
who represents county governments, who was excused.
Liquor
Control Division Administrator Shauna Helfert was first called upon and
asked to report on actions of the recently adjourned Legislature
regarding liquor law.
She told the Council House Bill 195 had passed, which amended the statute 
governing
restaurant beer and wine licenses to eliminate the "preference"
accorded unsuccessful past license lottery applicants when they applied
in a subsequent lottery.
The preference given applicants who
have operated a bona fide restaurant for one year or more prior to
application remains in place, Helfert noted.
She said the bill
also altered the definition of "restaurant" to require service of an
evening meal at least four times weekly between 5 and 11 p.m., and the
majority of its food served in non-throw-away containers.
Helfert said the Legislature authorized Montana breweries to make
stronger specialty beers than previously allowed, with up to 14 percent
alcohol by weight. In addition, she said the Legislature has mandated
that alcohol-laced energy drinks will henceforth be handled under the
same regimen as spirits, purchased by licensed retailers only through
the state warehouse.
She discussed HB211, which was withdrawn in
favor of a compromise that called for changes in administrative rules
to authorize an alternative penalty schedule for sales-to-minors
violations which would apply to licensees who have certifiably trained
servers in an approved program within 30 days of hire.
Helfert
said the Department of Revenue has a training program that can be
administered by 86 trainers throughout the state, but that other viable
programs such as TIPS may also be recognized and used.
John
Tooke, council chairman, said he hoped the ultimate aim of the rules—to
lessen the incidence of illegal sales to minors—would be fully realized.
Acting Gambling Control Division (GCD) Administrator Rick Ask was
called upon to discuss legislation that affects legal gaming. He noted
just one bill practically encapsulated all the relevant gaming
legislation, Senate Bill 86 carried by Sen. Tropila.
That bill,
known as a "clean up bill," passed almost unanimously and has been
signed by the Governor. It comprised the legislative initiatives of the
GCD and the GAC.
It allowed some format changes to bingo cards,
updated raffle laws and shifted raffle regulatory authority to the GCD,
created a new license for gambling "associated businesses" such as
machine recyclers and accounting software package developers, changed
fingerprinting standards to conform with the FBI's, clarified card room
contractor licensing requirements, restricted use of credit cards to
obtain cash advances for gambling purposes and so on.
Ask then presented draft rules which would implement the provisions of SB86.
Neil Peterson, in the audience representing the Gaming Industry
Association, asked that the rules draft governing the "associated
businesses" license clarify the legislative intent, and to not
unintentionally snare anyone who has access to proprietary gaming
information such as business attorneys and accountants.
Ask
said such clarification "would certainly be considered" and that a GCD
letter stated their intent to apply the law narrowly. "To attempt to
license another profession would call for new, specific rules," Ask
said.
The provision restricting use of credit cards to obtain
cash for gambling drew some discussion, with one council member, Tim
Carson representing industry, seeking assurances the prohibition would
not interfere with a card holder's ability to obtain cash from an ATM
machine where a "personal identification number" (PIN) is used.
Ask said as far as GCD was concerned, and in conformance with
legislative intent, that kind of transaction is between a card holder
and the card issuer. He did, however, concede the matter would benefit
from further clarification in rule.
Peterson interjected that the intent was never to legislate how ATMs could be made to function.
From the audience, Mark Staples, representing the Montana Tavern
Association, asked how, if cash used for gambling and obtained from an
ATM was prohibited, it could ever be enforced.
"Would licensees
be responsible for monitoring how people used ATMs? Would operators be
required to remove all ATMs that accept credit cards?" he asked. "I
believe such an interpretation would go too far. The premise owner
should have to be directly complicit in the use of a credit card" to
obtain cash for gambling purposes before an action should be brought
against that licensee, he said.
Audience member Steve Arntzen of
Century Gaming suggested the key language in the rule needed to
reference the use of a PIN number to obtain a cash advance, which would
clearly recognize the ATM transaction as one simply between card holder
and card issuer.
Ask acknowledged the rules draft did not
specifically address ATMs, and said the Division would "work with
industry to come up with a better understanding and language."
The Council then voted to ask the Division to present revised rules
language at the next GAC meeting, which is scheduled for Oct. 23.
The Council then heard a report from Ask regarding illegal "bunco"
games, one of which was recently shut down in Glendive. He said his
understanding was that the dice game was being played elsewhere and
that he would get the word out regarding the game's legal status (see
the Rick Ask column elsewhere in this edition).
Ask then
reviewed recent gaming statistics, particularly video gaming machine
tax collections for January-March, 2009. He noted collections were
slightly ahead of the same quarter last year but up markedly from the
previous quarter, which posted a 5 percent decline (see complete
reports and statistics on tax collections elsewhere in this issue).
Council chairman Tooke asked Ben Kamerzel, GCD test lab chief, who was
in the audience, to report on the status of gaming submissions and
approvals, noting he was glad to see GCD had added another full-time
lab engineer.
Kamerzel said work was being turned out at an increasing velocity, but
that game submissions and complexity were also increasing,
acknowledging "there are always concerns things aren't progressing as
quickly as they should."
He also noted additional engineering
testing is required surrounding the implementation of the newly
authorized thermal printers in place of conventional impact printers,
and portable USB data storage devices in place of printed paper audit
rolls. He also said he was "impressed with the speed with which
manufacturers are adopting this new technology for new machines and
even for retrofitting existing machines."
Kamerzel said,
"Process time is tough to quantify," but that it takes approximately 29
days for approval of machine modifications such as glass changes, video
screen replacements and software upgrades, and that it is taking about
63 days for an entirely new game platforms to be approved.
He
also noted the "smooth, fast approvals" come when manufacturers have
obtained approval of game concepts in advance of submission, and when
they respond quickly to "change requests." In some cases, further
delays are encountered when a manufacturer submits additional
enhancements with a response to a change request.
He said bonus
features are increasingly "nested"—bonuses within bonuses—and that now
various versions of each game are often submitted, all of which
increase the work load and can slow the process.
After a lunch
break, Chairman Tooke requested a discussion on a suggested agenda item
dealing with bill acceptors. Some had requested the rules governing the
devices be studied to see if Montana could conform more closely to what
is commonly used in other jurisdictions, including Indian reservations
here.
Most bill acceptors are manufactured with the capability
to validate 50-dollar and 100-dollar bills built in, but those features
are disabled when the devices are installed in Montana. Some
engineering designs also require that machine software communicate with
bill acceptor software, so any change in the bill acceptors could
require upgrades in machine operating software as well, it was noted.
Staples said he thought it might be beneficial, too, if MTA include
the item in its future deliberations in order that it can develop a
position to share with GAC.
Council members agreed the matter
could be complex but was subject to consideration so asked GCD to
develop a "white paper" to help elucidate the issue, which is to be
taken up at subsequent GAC meetings.
Carson said business input
suggested some revisions in live card games rules could enhance the
game for players and operators. But, having had an extensive study of
the matter two years ago which resulted in only minor changes, Carson
acknowledged a review of past work would be beneficial.
He
requested GCD provide the working papers of the 2005-2006 subcommittee
for council study prior to taking the matter up again at the next GAC
meeting.
Another item the Council decided to add to its future
agenda was continuing efforts to streamline the liquor/gaming license
amendment process in cases where no new party is contemplated being
added to the license.
Removing a party to a license due to, for
example, divorce or death currently triggers a rerun of the entire
application process, including complete re-investigations of those
already on the license and already investigated. Ask offered, and the
Council accepted, GCD staff input in the pending discussions.
Ask noted there is some consensus developing that there could be some
legal variations to traditional "sports boards" that the GAC might want
to consider. He suggested GCD investigator Tom Oberweiser attend the
next council meeting to provide a briefing and members readily
concurred.
Carson noted currently 86 percent of VGMs are
reporting data electronically via the state's web-based system, but
said the division has budgeted $50,000 annually to enhance the system,
so wanted an idea of how they planned to progress.
Ask said
more operators than earlier expected are reporting via direct-screen
entry rather than though custom accounting packages. He said work on
enhancing the direct-screen entry process might be most beneficial.
He added the division was interested in hearing ideas on system
enhancement from all user groups. Heidi Schmalz of Century Gaming, and
route vendor Clint Lohman, have been tasked to develop a suggested list
of improvements.
With that, the Council set its next meeting date tentatively for Oct. 23 in Helena, then adjourned.
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, May 2009, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W Granite, Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.