Charitable Gaming News from North Dakota

** Action Alert on HB 1524 and SB 2390
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Today, both the House and Senate have gaming bills that are to be voted on by each respective body.

In the House, HB 1524 which would reduce the maximum payouts to 82% on E-Tabs is up for a vote. You can copy and paste the house emails below into an email and tell them to support the committee recommendation of a DO NOT PASS recommendation on the bill.

Several of you have asked us to provide to you some talking points that you can email legislators with regarding some of the current and upcoming bills. Below are some examples that you can refer to when contacting them, and the specific bill numbers. Please let us know if you have any questions.

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TALKING POINTS FOR BILLS

Several of you have asked us to provide to you some talking points that you can email legislators with regarding some of the current and upcoming bills. Below are some examples that you can refer to when contacting them, and the specific bill numbers. Please let us know if you have any questions.

HB 1296 which is the site authorization bill. (in support)
1) We think it is wrong that a city or county should choose what charity goes into a site. Unless there have been violations, we believe that the city or county should allow a charity and site should be able to mutually decide what is best for their business, and the site authorizations should be approved without interference from the city/county.
2) Sometime a charity doesn’t fit with a site’s views, and the site should be able to choose which charity they want operating in their site.
3) Patrons get to know and trust charitable organization employees, and can help the business be successful. It should be forced to change charities at the discretion of a city/county.

HB 1484 which would define an eligible site as “.An authorized site includes a location that dispenses alcoholic beverages”. (in support) This would codify into century code the definition, and is in response to SB 2304 which would disallow sites who allow anyone under 21, and add additional language which would further impede any of you who have gaming in golf courses, convenience stores, gas stations, restaurants, etc.
1) Each city is different and serves different communities. Not all cities have 30 sites where charities can conduct gaming. Some have 1-2 sites that could be properly licensed. This is a local control issue and each city should be able to decide which businesses can conduct gaming, as long as they serve alcohol.

HB 1497 which would limit the amount of sites from 25 to 10 that a charity can operate in. (in opposition)
1) Some charities that operate in more than 10 sites are serving smaller communities that don’t have dozens of different charities they can choose from. Sometime there is only 1-2 charities in their area.
2) This will not accomplish the mission of this bill which is to break up charities and give other charities more opportunity. Many of these other charities won’t even go into these smaller towns due to the amount of driving and extra work it would take to operate in several small cities, and very possibly would not support the local communities that they would end up serving.

HB 1524 which moves the maximum payout on E-Tabs to 82% (in opposition)
1) Reducing the payout to 82% will increase the amount of dollars to charities for a VERY short amount of time. However, as players stop winning due to the fact they aren’t getting paid out as often and continue losing more money, they will stop playing the games and dollars to charities will be SIGNIFICANTLY reduced. This will be the death of the charitable gaming industry.
2) Most casinos run at approximately 92-93% payouts. If players aren’t winning in the sites, they will start migrating to other games, likely online or travelling out of state to do their gaming which will reduce tax dollars paid to the state.

SB 2304 which takes away the ability to conduct gaming in restaurants, golf courses, and any other facility that allows patrons under 21. (in opposition)
1) You can use the same arguments as 1484, except in opposition. This is a local control issue and will eliminate gaming in restaurants, gas stations, convenience stores, golf courses, etc…
2) Each community is different as we stated before and should be able to make decisions on their own as to what facilities should be allowed to have gaming as long as they serve alcohol.

SB 2390 which reduces the payouts to 88% and also requires charities to designate some of their dollars to certain programs.
1) You can use the same arguments as above regarding reduced payouts.
2) Charities should be able to designate their charitable dollars to whatever causes they choose (as to best serve their local communities)

We hope this helps. If you need any more information, please reach out. Thanks everyone!!

Scott Meske
scottjmeske@gmail.com
608 516 9307

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If you'd like to see this wonderful story about how charitable gaming gives back, see this link: https://www.minotdailynews.com/news/local-news/2022/02/aggie-foundation-partnership-supports-youth-initiatives/

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