Deadlines for electronic reporting approaching
Pub Date: 4/1/2008
Some may find it ironic that back in the mid-1990s, there were proposals floated to force video gambling machine (VGM) owners to electronically report machine play and tax data to regulatory authorities via designated phone lines. Now 14 years later, automated reporting is, for many, actually taking effect, but with several important and beneficial differences from the originally proposed mandatory "dial-up."
The whole notion of electronic automated reporting surfaced when a legislative audit found too many instances where accuracy of paper-and-pencil reported VGM data was questionable. Never, however, was it asserted that machine play figures were being under-reported deliberately. Instead it was conceded that in actuality machine play was more likely to be over-reported and, hence, taxes overpaid.
And the original proposals to hard-wire every device, then have a state computer phone these 17,000 machines daily to download data, was also conceded to be too complex and expensive at somewhere just short of $1,000 per machine.
It took setting misinformation, emotions and politics aside, and integrating incentives, not to mention advancing technology, to arrive at the practical alternative internet based system that is being implemented today.
One of those incentives was to allow machine owners who contractually committed to electronically report to operate both poker and keno on one machine, rather than just a single game per device. This statutory allowance also resulted in a flow of new poker and keno game concepts hitting the market that had been held in abeyance by machine manufacturers as they waited...and waited for the automated reporting system conundrum to be sorted.
Well, it has been sorted out and an automated system is well down the implementation road.
Most Montanans still appreciate that "a deal is a deal," that it is important to keep our word. Operators who signed up for multi-game equipment must soon start reporting electronically or revert to old single-game machines: that was the deal.
But we also know in Montana that the path involved in living up to "the deal" can be made rocky or smooth. From our vantage, the Gambling Control Division (GCD) has made every effort possible to assure the transition is as smooth as possible.
First, they have clearly and continuously communicated with licensees regarding the regulatory process, but more importantly about the implementation process. They have told licensees what will happen, why it will happen, when it will happen and now where it will happen.
On page 11 in this edition GCD Administrator Gene Huntington has a column that outlines the timetable for the region-by-region implementation of the system. Read it because it is important to you and will soon affect the way you run your business.
In addition, the GCD is working individually--and patiently from what we've heard--with licensees to come on board. They will send people to your location to get you set up and show you how the system works.
From every account we've heard and reported, the transition is not that difficult. On the contrary, those we've talked to such as Cal McOmber at the Corvallis Bar (one of the early test locations), say the system is easy to learn and use; it saves time and improves accuracy. It is simply the way business is conducted these days.
A small percentage of licensees--250 locations--will have to bite the bullet--start using a computer with internet access to do their reporting, or else revert to old single-game machines. They will also have to take the time to do some learning.
The good news? Of those 250 locations with 2,678 machines who signed multi-game agreements and are not yet reporting, certainly almost all will make the transition with little difficulty.
Better yet, almost 70 percent of the industry--representing almost 12,000 machines--is already reporting on-line. Nearly all vended locations are reporting electronically and the rest will soon follow, experiencing minimal pain.
Finally, those who opt to remain in the era of single-game machines and paper-and-pencil reporting can continue to do so.
It has been said before, but we cannot help but smile when we see public/private partnerships accomplish what force-feeding never has or will.
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, April, 2008, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.