Almost the Law
Law
school classes are conducted using the case method. Students are given published court opinions
and then questioned on what they deduce the law is. This produces lawyers with the mistaken
belief that the first place to look when conducting legal research is reported
cases.
It
is dangerous to forget that the final say on the law still usually means a bill
that has been approved by a legislature and signed by the executive.
With
a few important exceptions - Indian gaming, interstate horseracing and Internet
gaming - it is state legislatures, not the federal government, who determine
the most important issues involving legal gambling.
So,
what are the big issues facing lawmakers?
Looking at the bills that were introduced in state legislatures over the
years shows us not only what is being proposed, but what actually becomes law.
Almost
every state is looking at expanding legal gaming. The Hawaii Legislature had so many proposals
to legalize gambling that it passed a Resolution, now gone, declaring no new
gaming proposals.
Yet
in every state, almost all expansion bills still can't get out of
committee.
But
one occasionally does pass and is signed into law. These inevitably lead to more proposals for
expansion, never reduction.
States
start with legalizing charity bingo and licensing horseracing. There still are a few that don't have state
lotteries. But the current trend is
proposals for racinos. This year, they
were approved for Ohio. And once slot
machines or video lottery terminals are introduced, there are always campaigns
to expand with table games, as recently happened in West Virginia and Delaware.
Delaware
has the additional advantage of being one of the few states grandfathered-in
under the federal Professional and Amateur Protection Act, with the right to
take sports bets through its state lottery.
I was hired by the Delaware State Lottery to recommend what the tax rate
on the new sports books should be.
But
expansion is still the exception, not the rule.
The gaming industry has gained great political power in many states, but
card clubs and casinos still lose most of their battles. This is particularly true when they want
restrictions relaxed, such as being able to operate longer hours or higher
stake games. And forget about getting
tax rates reduced, unless there have been a few high-publicity
bankruptcies. The failure of almost
every bill having anything directly to do with gaming and money, except raising
taxes, shows how important it is to make sure everything is done right when
legal gambling is first introduced into a state.
Legal
gaming is especially politically weak when confronted with widespread social
movements. Having legislators mandate
such things as smoke-free rooms can hurt business when there are direct
competitors, such as tribal casinos, that don't have the same
restrictions. The casinos in Black Hawk,
Cripple Creek and Central City did not celebrate when Colorado repealed their
exemption from the "Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act."
Every
proposal to bring in legal gaming now includes provisions to help problem
gamblers, such as proposal in California to keep ATMs off the gaming floor.
Casinos
are still viewed as slightly immoral deep pockets. So, bills to exempt businesses from
burdensome taxes, in states like Colorado, Indiana, Kansas and Nebraska, or to
preserve historic buildings in Montana, expressly exclude casinos from the
benefits of the new laws.
One
Connecticut representative introduced a bill that could create a national
nightmare for casinos and players: to
tax out-of-state visitors on all they have won at casinos in the state.
States
are ramping up their competition for the gaming dollar. The Louisiana Legislature created a committee
to study "the effects of Mississippi's decision to land-base its casinos." We know what the recommendations will
be: "a study is necessary for the state
to determine whether a move to limited inland gaming would also lead to
increased economic development in this state..."
But
Tom Burch, a Kentucky Representative, had the ultimate solution for
competition. He introduced a resolution
that Kentucky send a submarine to sink any Indiana riverboat casino that
strayed onto its side of the Ohio River.
END
