Gaming Council closing in on card games bill
Pub Date: 8/1/2006
All the hard work and hours of meetings over the last year almost paid off in spades when the Gaming Advisory Council (GAC) met in Fort Benton July 21. While able to dispose of their agenda in just over three hours–about half the time typically required–the council nevertheless wound up referring a pesky live poker update bill draft back to a subcommittee for further fine tuning.
The discussion bogged when Gambling Control Division poker fee revenue and enforcement expense figures came into question.
Proposed substantial increases for dealer and card room contractor licensing and table fees–nearly doubled from present rates–were to fund the additional enforcement activity required to police the burgeoning live poker games, especially card dealer applications which have topped 800 in the current year, up from around 300 just two years ago.
But the bill draft contained a provision supported by the GAC at their April meeting to split the live card game table fee evenly with local governments, however GAC chairman Rep. John Witt (R-Carter) questioned the basis for such a split, noting fees are designated for use in regulation or enforcement activities and cannot be used to boost general government revenues, which the 50/50 split would do.
"I'm not sure you can raise a fee that is to be split with local government," Witt said. "Fees are supposed to be levied only in the equivalent of the cost" of regulation.
In addition, questions were raised regarding the Gambling Control Division's proposal to hire two additional investigators, with council member John Tooke asking if the additional personnel are really needed to help regulate live card games, or whether the division needed more personnel to enforce tobacco tax collection, which has recently come into the division's bailiwick and has apparently become a high priority.
The Division receives just $120,000 a year from the Department of Public Health and Human Services to enforce tobacco tax collection.
It was agreed to send the bill draft back to a special GAC poker subcommittee to see if the last few wrinkles could be worked out.
Rich Miller, a member of the Board of Directors of the Montana Council on Problem Gambling (MCPG), and the executive director of the Gaming Industry Association (GIA), gave the council an update on the MCPG budget, which at the last GAC meeting had been projected to fall into the red by the end of the year.
Miller said the GIA, the Montana Tavern Association, the Montana Coin Machine Operators Association and Town Pumps had all since agreed to increase their contributions to the MPG by one-third or $9,000 each, and that apparently a number of gaming equipment manufacturing companies in Montana were prepared to make new annual contributions for five years at $5,000 per year each.
Under the scenario outlined by Miller, the Council on Problem Gambling's budget should be boosted by 50 percent and should be comfortably in the black. He noted an increased demand for services brought about by an increased awareness through advertising of the services' availability has stretched funding.
Miller also told the council that the MCPG is moving to establish methods to measure the effectiveness of the group therapy treatment programs it offers. The MCPG also provides compulsive gambling treatment training for clinicians.
Rep. Sue Dickenson (D-Great Falls) applauded the business groups for stepping up their support, but still asked the Advisory Council to consider additional funding for gambling treatment programs from the state, especially for prevention, education and outreach. "We can still do better," she said.
In other ongoing council business, Gambling Control Division Administrator Gene Huntington said he had checked with banks and ATM companies about possible mechanisms for limiting the use of credit cards to obtain cash for gambling and was told difficulties in modifying ATMs for debit cards only were insurmountable.
Huntington had been asked at the last Council meeting to research the practicality of such a proposal. In Missoula last year a college student used his parent's credit card to obtain cash advances which he spent on gambling. When the parent balked at paying the charges, the credit card company refused as well. The operators affected attempted to collect the debts and were told they had no recourse, since the charges were recorded as transactions for merchandise in violation of the agreement between merchants and the credit card issuer.
Montana Tavern Association Counsel Mark Staples reminded the council that the original prohibition on credit gambling was meant for the house to not give credit. "If someone uses cash they get from somewhere else–earned, inherited or borrowed–it is not the current law' province," he said.
Miller said he has advised his members that cash advances on credit cards for gambling verge on being a violation of credit gambling statutes and that the best policy was to refrain from the practice.
Ronda Wiggers, speaking for the Montana Coin Operators, said most of her members, when made aware of the problem, ceased issuing cash advances on credit cards.
Articles on the problem in the Montana Tavern Times by Miller and Huntington may have had some effect, as there have been no further reported cases of abuse, Huntington said, and that he was willing to take a "wait-and-see" attitude to see if any further cases crop up.
Huntington agreed, at the suggestion of council member Tim Carson, to approach the Tavern Times to see if further educational information could be distributed.
Councilman John Tooke then reported on his involvement with a commission that has formed to explore ways to save the struggling sport of horse racing in Montana. He said the experience has been frustrating and that there will apparently be a large learning curve involved in the effort to identify a solution. The group has announced it will seek $700,000 in general fund money to fund purses for horse racing for the next two years, an admitted stop-gap measure.
Al Arvish, who is heading up the division's program to develop an internet based system for automatically reporting gaming machine activity and taxes due, said development and testing are right on track with several beta sites now implementing the test versions. He showed the council a number of straight forward screen layouts that would be used in the reporting process.
Huntington noted the extensive system testing has backed up other routine testing work in the division lab.
He also gave a quick rundown on the state of tribal gaming compact negotiations, noting the talks with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservations had stalled and no further talks were scheduled.
He said discussions with the Blackfeet were put on hiatus until the tribal council elections were completed. The Assiniboine Sioux of the Fort Peck Reservation have contacted the state to start negotiations and the Fort Belknap talks are progressing well, Huntington said, and "could be done fairly quickly."
He said the Northern Cheyenne have scheduled a public meeting of some sort to talk about the possibility of asking the National Indian Gaming Regulatory Commission to allow the tribe to offer gaming off-reservation on tribal fee land.
Regarding internet gambling, Huntington noted the U.S. House of Representatives just passed a landmark bill that would make credit card transactions for the purpose of internet gambling illegal, but noted the same legislation would allow intra-state internet gambling.
He also said the U.S. Department of justice has launched a massive case against an internet sports book operating out of the U.K.
The next meeting of the council was set for Oct. 19 in Helena where Huntington said the division should be ready to present its biennial report to the legislature.
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, August, 2006, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.