Video Slot Update: Wednesday evening
For those following the video slot discussion: The bill has been put off until Monday's floor calendar.
Last night, Rep. Hugh Holliman and others I spoke with were saying the bill needed to go to Finance. At some point since then, a decision was made that the thing could hit the floor as is. Then someone realized that they didn't have an incarceration note, something that accounts for the cost of jailing folks who are prosecuted under the new crimes the law would create. To allow time for that report to be generated, it is put off until next week.
Confused? Good. So were lots of other people following the bill today.
It was gently suggested to me today that this could have been a lottery-initiated action. The state-sanctioned gambling enterprise, the logic goes, would want to eliminate any potential competition.
"We were not involved in the bill. We didn't even know about it," said Alice Garland, a lobbyist for the lottery.
Garland said that the lottery has not studied if or how much money they might lose to video slots and pointed out that sales of lottery tickets jumped last year to $1.087 billion.
"We're aware of these games but we just haven't gotten involved at all," she continued. "Our focus is on increasing our own sales."
Comments (1)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
Comparing the Video Sweepstakes and Lottery is sort of like comparing College Basketball to Soccer - both are played with a round ball.
The Sweepstakes creates that instant gratification and excitement that professional gaming facilities strive to perfect. It's clean, it's fast. The lottery is messy (scratch off debris) or boring (drawings - NOT EVEN SEEN HERE IN GREENSBORO ????)
The State, the Counties and the Cities need new revenue sources - take it from the sweepstakes folks. At least it would be voluntary.
Posted on July 2, 2008 7:15 PM