GAC: internet reporting moving forward
Pub Date: 2/1/2006
The Gambling Advisory Council (GAC) voted Jan. 20 to request that the Gambling Control Division (GCD) proceed with developing statute and rules changes that are required to proceed toward implementation of internet based reporting of gambling machine data for tax calculation and collection purposes.
The council, comprised of citizen, legislative, local government and business representatives, advises the Legislature and Department of Justice in matters related to gambling regulation. It met in Billings at the Billings Hotel.
The group discussed the report of a subcommittee tasked with modernizing rules governing live poker games and tournaments, voted to explore legislation regulating the display of payout tables on gaming machine screens and tabled a call to allow tax credits for machines that actually lose money during a reporting period.
The GAC also began preliminary discussions on joining other states in a coalition to exert control over internet gambling as well as the integration of the Gambling Control Division s tax database with the Department of Revenue's IRIS system, additional funding for non-profit compulsive gambling treatment programs such as the one offered by the Montana Council on Problem Gambling, further legislation to assure credit gambling remains stifled, testing fee increases to fund expanding testing lab workloads and alterations to the bingo statute.