Category Archives: Gambling

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A look at Pennsylvania casino gambling revenue Sacramento Bee Pennsylvania lawmakers are considering an expansion of casino gambling to help the state's deficit-ridden finances. Here is a look at the existing commercial gambling industry in Pennsylvania: ___. REVENUE. Pennsylvania is the nation's No. 2 commercial ... Pennsylvania eyes leap to internet for casinos, lotteryPocono Record all 6 news articles »

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A look at Pennsylvania casino gambling revenue - Sacramento Bee

Fort Worth Star Telegram

Are Texas lawmakers ready to expand gambling in Texas? | Fort ... Fort Worth Star Telegram Lawmakers have filed plans to legalize fantasy sports, casinos, eight-liners, machines at horse tracks and more. Will any proposals pass before the session ends ... and more »

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Are Texas lawmakers ready to expand gambling in Texas? | Fort ... - Fort Worth Star Telegram

Saturday April 22 2017

A man gambles at Githurai estate in Nairobi on November 27, 2015. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

A vicious battle between big industry players and smaller ones based in the countiesfor control of the betting, gaming and gambling sector has been going on even as government seeks to raise taxes of their earnings.

The big companies business model is carried in onlineand mobile platformswhile the small players have slot machines, mostly imported from China and targeting low-income earners.

On September 19 last year, the Betting Control and Licensing Board, the market regulator, wrote to all County Commissioners and directed them to mount a major crackdown, confiscate gaming machines and arraign the operators in a court of law.

The owners, fearing that they may be pushed out of business, and indicated they had licences from county governments, quickly moved to court challenging the legality of the regulators letter.

They were issued with temporary orders by Justice John Mativo. The judge directed the government, its officials and agents not to conductany crackdown on business premises where the slot machines are situated. He also directed themnot to suspend the business or close them until the hearing and determination of the suit. The suit is ongoing at the High Court.

The view of the bigger players appears to have been indicated two weeks ago when Mr Ronald Karauri, the chief executive of SportsPesa, arguably the biggest company today in the industry, waded into the debate by lauding President Uhuru Kenyatta for identifying the gambling machines as illegal.

We fully support President Uhuru Kenyattas concerns last Monday over the rising problem of underage gambling associated with illegal gambling machines, he said in press statement.

He went on to say they have previously raised the same concerns with the regulator and county governments constantly requesting them to curb this menace which has tarnished the industrys image and stands to ruin the lives of our children.

He seemed to have been reacting to the Presidents comments, during the launch of the Jubilee administration portal, on the proposed 50 per cent tax announced in the budget and the industry in general.

We were very concerned about the rise in betting especially among the school going children.

This technology has been had a positive impactbut it also had its downside. We felt as responsible government we needed to ensure we needed to make it more difficult for people to bet and those who wanted to bet that that money will go to causes that are social in nature and beneficial,: the president had said.

The president promised to ask Treasury to liaise with parliament to engage the industry players on the taxes but insisted they will not come too low.

Mr Sam Kahia, chairman of the slot machinesumbrella body, Kenya Counties Amusement and Gaming Society, said there is need to regulate the industry just like in Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi.

We commit to promote responsible gambling with interest of Kenyans coming first. Remember, Kenyansinvest and are protected by theConstitution. We went to BCLBoffices for licence but they declined so wewent to county offices and obtained licences only for the board to come later and term the operation illegal, he said.

He also claimed the machine operators employ may Kenyans and does not allow underage clients.

Board Chairman Kimani Kungu said the authority has been following the law.

Unscrupulous business people operate gaming premises with Chinese machines whose integrity cannot be verified and most have no importation documents nor evidence of payment of necessary taxes. It is mandatory that imported gaming equipment has to be authorised by Betting Control and Licensing Board, he said.

Kenya Revenue Authority is to impose a 20 per cent withholding tax on winnings

The repeat nominations will now be held on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

The doctors began their strike on December 5 last year paralysing the public health sector.

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Big industry players fight over billions in gambling - Daily Nation

The Florida Senate will open the bidding in negotiations between House and Senate members over new gambling legislation.

A conference including six state representatives and six state senators will take place at 4 p.m. Thursday, during which the Senate will make a formal offer to House negotiators, state Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, confirmed.

Galvano is the conference chairman and is experienced in gambling legislation. He did not respond to questions about what exactly the Senate would offer.

Both the Senate and House passed gambling bills earlier in the legislative session, but the bills are vastly different, hence the negotiations.

The Senate bill would grant the Seminole Tribe the right to offer craps and roulette at its casinos; pari-mutuels in Broward and Miami-Dade counties would get blackjack; and pari-mutuels across the state would win the right to have slot machines if county voters approve of it. So far, eight counties outside of Broward and Miami-Dade, where slots are already legal, have done so.

The Senate bill would also allow pari-mutuels to stop racing animals and simply operate as casinos.

The House bill does none of those things. In fact, it states that pari-mutuels halting races would violate an agreement between the Seminole Tribe and the state.

That agreement is at the heart of both versions of the gambling legislation. A new agreement with the tribe is needed because provisions of the original 2010 deal that granted the Seminoles the right to offer blackjack have lapsed. The tribe continues to have the game because of a court order.

The state allowed pari-mutuels to operate designated player games such as three-card poker. The tribe maintained that these games were too similar to blackjack, thus violating the agreement. A court agreed, and a provision of the agreement allows the tribe to offer blackjack for the complete, 20-year duration of the agreement in the case of such a violation.

The tribe has come out against both the Senate and House versions of the gambling legislation. It wants the craps and roulette offered in the Senate version, but does not favor the increased competition the bill would create. And the House version has the tribe paying more money to the state but getting no new games in return.

dsweeney@SunSentinel.com, 954-356-4605 or Twitter @Daniel_Sweeney

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Senate to open negotiations at Thursday gambling conference - Sun ... - Sun Sentinel (blog)

JACK VAN BEYNEN

Last updated05:00, April 23 2017

Stuff.co.nz

UK gambling ads have been accused of ripping off What We Do In The Shadows, a Kiwi vampire comedy directed by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement.

Vampires don't have reflections, but two Kiwi directors might be seeing shades of theirfanged flick in a series of copycat British ads.

Directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, 2014 mockumentaryWhat We Do In the Shadowstold the story of three vampires living in a Wellington flat.

UK online gambling site Virigin Games has been accused of plagiarising the film for a series of ads.

SUPPLIED

Taika Waititi, Jonathan Brugh and Jemaine Clement as vampires in What We Do In The Shadows.

The ads feature Vlad, a 21st century vampire who has learned to "live a little" by gambling on his smartphone.

READ MORE: *What We Do in the Shadows TV spinoff in the works *Plenty at stake in Taika's new film * IT guy turns accidental film star

CAMERON BURNELL/FAIRFAX NZ

Actor and comedian Cori Gonzalez-Macuer says he thought the ad campaign's ideas were plagiarised from What We Do In The Shadows.

They appear to borrow several gags from the film, including issues over bloody dishes, disappearing reflections and a vampire dating an elderly woman.

The similarities were highlighted by English satire magazinePrivate Eye, which accused Virgin Games of "utter shamelessness".

Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, who plays reluctant vampire Nick in the Shadows, said after watching the ads he thoughtit was pretty obvious the idea had been borrowed.

SUPPLIED

What We Do In The Shadows was a mockumentary about vampires cohabiting in Wellington.

"I'm pretty sure they got the idea from What We Do In The Shadows. I mean it's not even like it's kind of like it, there's even exact lines from the movie in it." he said.

"I wasn't annoyed by it or anything, I think it's cute they tried to do it. It's not as funny, but good on them."

Gonzalez-Macuer said he failed to see the connection between the legendary denizens of the night and gambling.

"It's a weird, weird idea to put it into a gambling ad. When I think of vampires I don't really think of gambling."

Film critic James Croot said there was "no doubting" the ads were similar to Waititi and Clement's film but he wasn't convinced they were close enough to be considered plagiarism - "more of an homage or 'cheeky liberty'- as Richard Branson himself might say."

"They've deliberately chosen a contemporary looking bloke, rather than the vampiric archetypes of that film.

"Also, there were some, particularly in Britain, who saw Taika's film as borrowing liberally from the much-loved 1980s British sitcom The Young Ones, especially with its anarchic sense of humour and disparate flatmates."

He said ads riffing on popular movies was nothing new, pointing to a classic 1980s Kiwi-made commercial for Crunchie bars that was set in a world very derivative ofStar Wars.

This isn't even the first time Waititi's own work has been ripped off for an advertisement.

Earlier this year, a beer company made an ad that was almost a shot-for-shot copy of a section of Waititi's Team Thorshort,which he made to promote his latest filmThor: Ragnarok.

When a fan brought the ad to his attention on Twitter, Waititi said: "It makes me want a beer so I guess I can't be too annoyed."

Gamesys, the parent company of Virgin Games and VCCP, the Londonad agency that devised the Vlad campaign, was approached for comment, but didn't respond.

-Sunday Star Times

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What We Do In The Shadows ripped off by UK gambling ad - Stuff.co.nz

OKLAHOMA CITY While lottery sales in most states are smashing records as people spend big on scratch-off tickets, the Oklahoma Lottery is on course for one of its most dismal performances.

Officials say its a blow for the states voter-approved game of chance. The lottery was once heralded as the savior of education amid over-inflated promises from lawmakers that it could bring in as much as $300 million to $500 million a year for schools.

It was probably the best marketed thing that weve ever seen because here it is a decade later and people still think that it is still some sort of solution to education funding woes, and the reality is its probably less than 1 percent of any school districts budget, said state Sen. David Holt, R-Oklahoma City.

In just over a decade, the states lottery has contributed a little more than $750 million to education, but lottery contributions have been declining since last peaking at $71.6 million in budget year 2008. If lawmakers do nothing to address the situation, state budget officials predict the lottery will lose another $25 million over the next five years.

I dont like the lottery'

Every day for the past seven years, somebody has asked Holt about the lottery and why its not fixing the states education funding woes.

I always have to explain nothings broken about the lottery. It just didnt raise the money that was predicted, he said.

Reform advocates, though, say the states system is crippled by an antiquated, restrictive and broken framework that does little to incentivize people to gamble. In hopes of revitalizing the lotto, theyre pushing a measure that would overhaul that framework.

As other states have raised prize amounts for instant win games better known as scratch-off cards and increased the odds of winning, Oklahomas rigorous and some claim anti-gambling framework has made it impossible to offer the lucrative prizes that players demand, said Jay Finks, director of marketing and administration for the Oklahoma Lottery.

It hasnt underperformed based on the law, he said. We have overperformed based on the overly restrictive law.

Oklahomas prizes and odds of winning remain among the worst in the nation, and many players have simply deduced that the state-sponsored lottery is a bad bet, he said.

That leads people to stop playing altogether or go to another form of gaming to play, he said. People want to play and win.

In 2016, national lotto sales grossed more than $80 billion more than $22.5 billion of which flowed into state and local coffers, according to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, which represents the majority of lottery systems, including Oklahomas.

Oklahomas lotto sales lagged behind the national average of $216, according to a legislative budget analysis. Neighboring Arkansas, which offers larger prizes, saw per capita sales of $138 in 2015 while Oklahoma saw $44, the analysis found.

Lawmakers have long been aware that the states lottery is in crisis, said former state Rep. Mike Shelton, D-Oklahoma City. Among the legislators who initially helped set up the lottery laws, Shelton unsuccessfully pitched legislation to overhaul the program for years and was among the first to champion updates.

Our Legislature has known full well that the law needed tweaking, but theyve never touched the lottery, he said.

For those colleagues frowning upon games of chance, the idea of incentivizing gambling by making it more lucrative proved a tough sell, Shelton said.

(Lawmakers) have just told us, We dont want to increase gaming, so were not going to help the lottery,' Finks said. 'I dont like the lottery. I want you (the lottery) to die.'

Dollars and cents

Proponents of change, though, continue to push lawmakers to remove the mandated portion automatically allocated to schools so that it can be adjusted closer to the industry standard of 25 cents. The state would be able to offer more appealing games to consumers and increase the lottos overall revenue, they say.

Lawmakers are currently vetting the measure, which has passed the House, but is awaiting a Senate vote. Bill author Rep. Leslie Osborn, R-Mustang, did not respond to a request for comment.

Under current law, for every $1 lottery ticket sold, 35 cents goes straight to education. Retailers, who sell tickets, receive 6 cents. The vendor who runs the games makes 4 cents, while the states lottery keeps 3 cents for administrative costs.

You cannot have a successful lottery if you only have 50 cents for prizes, Finks said. That doesnt leave you enough money to put prizes where they need to be.

At 35 cents, Oklahoma has one of the if not the highest fixed percentages in the nation, he said.

State budget officials estimate that eliminating the mandate would actually increase the lotterys contributions to education by $110 million in the next five years as more people play.

Under current law, 45 percent of the proceeds go to K-12 education. Higher education and other educational programs share another 45 percent. The remainder is split between a school consolidation fund and the Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System.

If lawmakers had adjusted that amount sooner, schools would already be benefiting, Shelton said.

I think the lottery has done what weve given it the power to do, he said. What we did was left it to fail intentionally. Oklahoma is a gambling state. We should have set it up to work. The lottery was set up to help our kids, and people are going to spend the money whether theyre going (to) casinos, whether theyre playing the lottery.

Last year, the state saw more than $3 billion spent on gambling, but only a small percentage of that $188.7 million was spent on the lottery, Finks said.

Right now, the only way we survive is to get a big jackpot, Finks said, referring to the states two non-instant win games Powerball and Mega Millions.

Last year, Oklahoma only sold $77.5 million in scratch-off tickets, he said. This year, sales are predicted to drop to less than $70 million.

The decline isnt a surprise for Ross Hutson, general manager of Duncan-based City Mart Energy, which sells lottery tickets at 16 convenience store locations in the Duncan and Pauls Valley areas.

He said fewer customers are buying the scratch-off tickets. His busiest locations sell between 70 and 100 tickets a day, he said.

If the prizes were better, it would be an increase in ticket sales, Hutson said.

Better payouts and odds'

If lawmakers approve the measure, budget officials estimate retailers like City Mart will see a windfall as well. Statewide, businesses could expect to generate an additional $25 million in new revenue over five years.

Were certainly not going to keep the lights on by selling lottery tickets with our percentage, Hutson said. He said the games help draw customers into the store, who hopefully spend money on sodas, candy bars and other items.

Checkout stands at the states retailers could have a different look in July. If lawmakers ultimately approve the overhaul, lottery officials plan to throw out their current instant win games and replace them with new games that all have better payouts and odds, Finks said.

While Holt said he supports the legislative measure, he doesnt believe it will increase lottery play tenfold.

I think the theory is sound and I think it will help but I think people need to understand it will never get the lottery proceeds up to the levels that were predicted when this was considered by voters a decade ago, Holt said.

Janelle Stecklein covers the Oklahoma Statehouse for CNHI's newspapers and websites. Reach her at jstecklein@cnhi.com.

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Lottery reform gambling on bigger payoffs, better odds - Enid News & Eagle

Following a Florida Supreme Court decision Thursday morning that gave the green light to a proposed constitutional amendment on gambling, negotiations between the Florida House and Senate over gambling legislation were called off.

The court ruled 4-2 that the amendments wording was not misleading and sticks to one subject. The amendment gives Florida voters the exclusive right to decide whether to authorize casino gambling.

Backers of the amendment will still need to gather more than 700,000 signatures to make the 2018 ballot. They had submitted 74,626 signatures as of Thursday, according to the state Division of Elections.

Two Supreme Court justices argued that the amendment was misleading because it is unclear how it would affect counties, including Miami-Dade and Broward, where voters have approved slot machines at dog and horse tracks.

Both the House and Senate have passed gambling bills this session, which ends May 5. The two bills are vastly different, forcing the two chambers to go into a conference to iron out the details.

That conference had been tentatively set for 4 p.m. Thursday, but the courts decision to allow the constitutional amendment to go forward indefinitely postponed it, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.

"The Supreme Court ruled today on voter control of gaming. I want to digest the decision before moving forward," said conference chairman Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton.

At stake are elements in the Senate version of the bill that would give craps and roulette to the Seminole Tribe, blackjack to pari-mutuels in Broward and Miami-Dade counties and slot machines to counties in which voters have approved them. None of those changes are included in the House gambling bill.

Eight counties other than Broward and Miami-Dade, where they are already legal, have approved slot machines. Palm Beach County voters approved allowing slot machines at the Palm Beach Kennel Club, but the state constitution specifically mentions only Broward and Miami-Dade counties as being able to have slots.

The constitution doesnt say whether other counties can, and whether the Broward and Miami-Dade language means that only those counties can have slot machines is the subject of another state Supreme Court case, a decision in which could come at any time.

The Seminole Tribe would have to sign off on a final gambling bill, but theyve come out against both the House and Senate versions.

Its unclear whether a law passed by the Legislature before the November election would remain in place. That ambiguity over whether the amendment could be applied retroactively was the chief issue cited by the two justices who dissented from the state Supreme Court decision.

State Rep. Joe Geller, D-Aventura, said he and other gambling conference members need time to read the Supreme Court decision for themselves.

A gambling conference likely will be held Monday or Tuesday, Geller said.

Galvano had initially hoped to wrap up gambling negotiations ahead of House and Senate wrangling over the budget, so that the money the state would generate from revenue-sharing agreements with the Seminole Tribe could be added into the budget. According to Geller, the postponing might not affect that outcome.

My understanding is theyre not beginning the budget conference until Wednesday, he said, so it depends how quickly we move.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

dsweeney@SunSentinel.com, 954-356-4605 or Twitter @Daniel_Sweeney

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Gambling amendment gets court approval as legislators cancel conference - Sun Sentinel (blog)

CONCERN: Fixed odds betting terminals

SELBY could soon be backing national calls for a clampdown on betting machines labelled the crack cocaine of gambling.

Six betting shops in the district - including four in Selby town itself - currently have Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) which let gamblers stake up to 100 every 20 seconds on casino games like roulette.

A group of MPs have called for national law changes to cut down those stakes and slow the machines down, and for local councils to get the power to stop clusters of gambling shops springing up.

Next week Selby councillors will be asked to back those calls, and reports prepared for the council shows some people in the area are already concerned.

Selby Town Council has responded to a consultation to raise some fears.

Concern was raised over the Fixed Odds Betting Terminals and suggest that a limit to the stake being made be reduced from 100 to 2. It was felt that there is a possibility of money laundering with so much money going into the machines and other vulnerable people may be exploited with such high stakes available, it says.

The district council does not have those powers, so the law would have to be changed nationwide to make that possible.

The recommendations have come from the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on FOBTs, which looked into the impact the machines can have and heard evidence from experts including academics, addiction specialists, policy makers and representatives from the gambling sector.

The MPs found that between 2002 and 2012 the number of FOBTs rose to over 34,000. Betting shop chains like Ladbrokes, William Hill and Coral can make more than 900 a week profit from each roulette machine, and can have up to four per shop.Their report calls for smaller stakes and slower spins to cut down the harm the machines can do, as well as more powers for local councils, and it accuses the Gambling Commission of failing to adequately advise the Government in recent years.

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Gambling crackdown - The Press, York

When NFL owners voted overwhelmingly last month to move the Raiders to Las Vegas, some of them went out of their way to say the city was no longer the corrupting influence they believed it once was and now very capable of supporting a franchise.

The Dallas Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones, a prime backer of the move, said the city most closely associated with gambling is not your fathers Las Vegas. Even the NFLs commissioner, Roger Goodell, who continues to oppose legalized sports gambling, admitted that Las Vegas was not the same city it was 10 or 20 years ago.

Las Vegas has evolved enough for us to bless it with our presence, the league seemed to be saying.

But the decision to leave Oakland and embrace Las Vegas presents conflicts for a league that has long stood vehemently against gambling. A franchise will live in Sin City a notion considered a nonstarter just five years ago as a neighbor of the casinos and sports books that for so long were the enemy.

Goodell has said that the leagues policies are all about protecting the integrity of the game, but they amount to a hodgepodge of contradictions.

The league continues to fight legal efforts that would effectively let states other than Nevada and Delaware introduce sports gambling even as leagues like the NBA and the NHL, which have stood with the NFL in court, have softened their stance on the issue. The NFL also continues to penalize players and other league personnel who are paid to appear at casinos even as team owners collect millions of dollars from sponsorships with casinos, state lotteries and fantasy football providers, and play games in England, where sports betting is legal.

Just this month, for example, several players participated in an arm wrestling event at the MGM Hotel and Casino on the Vegas Strip, and the league is considering whether to fine them for those appearances.

How can you have a franchise there and not allow players to participate in arm wrestling contests? said Scott Rosner, who teaches sports law and business at the University of Pennsylvania. When you get into the weeds, the policies may not be as inconsistent as they seem, but the optics are that the league is very inconsistent on this.

The NFL, though, will remedy these contradictions, Rosner said. The Raiders will play in Oakland for at least two more seasons, giving the owners time to revisit their rules and bring them more in line with the reality that gambling has become far more ubiquitous than the days when gamblers had to place bets through a bookie or at a racetrack.

The NFL is often criticized for having a double standard on gambling, in part because the public seems to be more accepting of betting on games. A recent poll by researchers at Seton Hall University found that just 21 percent of respondents thought the NFL was tarnishing its reputation by putting a team in Las Vegas. While it is hard to imagine another American city prompting such a negative reaction, it is also a far smaller percentage than might have been the case even a decade ago.

In the immediate future, the league will tread more slowly because a lawsuit brought by Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey to allow casinos in his and other states to open sports books is still pending. The NFL and other leagues have argued for years that permitting sports gambling beyond Nevada and Delaware would harm them. When that case concludes, the NFL will be able to revisit its stance on gambling, said Daniel Wallach, a sports gambling lawyer at Becker & Poliakoff in Florida.

The league is not averse to sports gambling and recognizes that there is a lot of money to be made, he added. The key, he said, is for the league to manage the process by, for instance, lobbying Congress to introduce a national policy on sports wagering instead of facing variations in each state.

Theyre not fighting to stop sports betting, theyre fighting allowing states to come up with their own apparatus in their own ways, Wallach said.

If anything, this is good business, and if there is anything the NFL has shown, it is good at making money. The league certainly recognizes that the growth of DirecTVs NFL Sunday Ticket, which lets fans watch every game, and Verizons NFL RedZone, which shows every scoring play, has been driven by people who gamble on football. Fans who bet on NFL games watched more than twice as many games as nonbetting ones during the 2015 regular season, according to a study by Nielsen Sports financed by the American Gaming Association.

The question, then, is how the league continues to prevent the perception, real or otherwise, that games might be influenced by gamblers, while also adapting to a changing world in which casinos and gambling in general are becoming more pervasive.

We have to make sure that we continue to stay focused on making sure that everyone has full confidence that what you see on the field is not influenced by any outside factors, Goodell said last month. We will not relent on that.

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As it embraces Las Vegas, NFL is awash in gambling contradictions - MyAJC

Shawn Raymundo , sraymundo@guampdn.com Published 5:13 p.m. ChT April 20, 2017 | Updated 20 hours ago

Keep Guam Good spokeswoman Jackie Marati and Sinajana Mayor Robert Hoffman offer contrasting testimony on Sen. Telena Nelson's bill to prohibit gambling activities during the Liberation fair and village fiestas. Shawn Raymundo/PDN

Attorney Joaquin "Jay" Arriola Jr. expresses concern over minors betting on beto-beto or color games at the Liberation carnival during his testimony on a bill that would ban gambling at the Liberation carnival and other fairs or carnivals at the Guam Legislature on Thursday, April 20, 2017.(Photo: Rick Cruz/PDN)

Village mayors on Thursday appeared before lawmakers to defend casino and gambling activitiesat the islands annual Liberation Carnival.

Citing public sentiment against casinos and gambling, freshman Sen. Telena Nelson, D-Dededo, and Speaker Benjamin Cruz, D-Tumon, introduced legislation to outlaw such operations from the Guam Island Fair Liberation Day Carnival.

Nelson said it's elected officials' responsibility to prevent dilemmas such as gambling addiction.

If were part of the community or the agencies that brings this gambling, this addiction towardour people, we cannot say, It is not our problem, Nelson said of Bill 50-34.

If enacted, the bill would repeal the local statute that has allowed the MayorsCouncil of Guam and Liberation Historical Society to manage gambling enterprises during the fair. It also would prohibit mayors from hosting fiesta-related casino events.

The poll,Should casino-style gambling be eliminated at the Liberation Carnival? closes at 5 p.m. April 21, 2017.

Representing the Mayors Council, Sinajana Mayor Robert Hoffman testified against the bill. He said profits raised from the gambling operations make up a substantial amount of the funds needed to host the carnival and other fair-related activities.

Presently, no public funds are used to host the ... events, memorials, parade, carnival, fireworks. And we can safely say, if there is no money, these events will not take place, Hoffman said.

Hoffman said the cost to execute Liberation events runsabout $650,000. If the bill passes, he said, the Legislature should amend the law that places the Mayors Council in charge.

Get it away from us, he said.

Liberation gambling, Hoffman added, also has helpednonprofits such as first lady Christine Calvos Riglu Foundation and GovGuam agencies, including the Guam Police Department, Public Works, Parks and Recreation, Chamorro Affairs and the Chamorro Village.

Merizo Mayor Ernest Chargualaf also told lawmakers the money the Mayors Council has raised from Liberation gambling has allowed the individual mayors to put the money to good use village events and activities for manamko and children.

Gambling opponent Jackie Marati, representing Keep Guam Good, said the issue isnt about the Liberation fair or all the good things mayors do.

Detailing Guams history of companies and organizations that tried to get casinoson island, Marati noted that voters consistently said no to ballot initiatives between 2004 and 2012. Yet gambling operations have continued during fairs and fiestas.

The issue, Marati said, boils down to a lack of respect for the peoples choice and disrespect for their will.

John Dungca also testifiedin favor of the bill. The Sinajana resident said opposition to gambling on Guam has been growing.

This is a generational problem that isnt going to go away. But you can also see that its growing. The people who oppose gambling is growing through the generations, he said We are just carrying what our parents started before us.

In prepared written testimony, Dungca explained why he has opposed casino initiatives.

I did not believe the money the government would have received from casino gambling would offset the problems and social ills that follow the gambling industry, he wrote.

Hoffman was critical of the testimony that compared casino initiatives to the gaming operations at the carnival.

The initiatives, Hoffman said, should not be used as a standard or baseline, 'cause each proposal was different and involved slot machines none of which are used and found in the carnival or fiesta gaming, no matter where it takes place.

READ MORE:

Sinajana mayor: Fiesta gaming events are not casinos

Bill could prohibit fiesta casinos at fairgrounds

Mayors oppose casino bill

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Mayors oppose anti-gambling bill - Pacific Daily News