West Virginia House passes table games bill... next step?

[Doppler Bob]

Last week the table games bill was passed by the state house to allow table games in the four counties with current slot based casinos. The vote passed 59/41, but now goes to the tougher state senate.

My question is this: if this bill does pass the senate, how quickly will we see table games up and running throughout the state? Is this a quick few month turnover, or a few year process?

[Gonso]

Quickly - it's a profitable industry. Provided the investors felt secure in the permanency of the legislation, I imagine you'd see gaming in the casino fairly soon. They'd need to find trained personnel to operate games and people to supervise them (obviously the dealers will have to come from somewhere else).

The delays will mostly come from whatever government body regulates gaming there. They need to establish the rules and standards for table games in WV. Atlantic City is slow relative to Vegas in terms of getting things authorized, for example, because of Casino Control Commission is very stringent. It all depends the agency who has control of it where you are.

[Jay67s]

I believe this must go to a referendum in each county with a current casino. So it must wait until the next election. The lottery commission already has "rules" setup from where this tried to get passed 3 years ago. The state senate passed a similar bill 3 years ago so hopefully this slides through the senate quickly

[tippy]

There is also the "tax" problem. 35% will kill most of the profits. I didn't dig real deep into the issue and I can't really explain it that well, but if you go to the articles that have been written, you may get a better idea of how this might limit the games. I believe NJ had a 9% rate whereas WV wanted a 35% rate. Between the costs of employees, opportunity cost of space used and the taxes, I wonder how much profit is left. This is especially applicable to my favorite, POKER, since the house really makes zero off of poker.

Another problem is the ridiculously low recall requirements even if this thing does pass. I seem to recall that they set it around 5%. Not sure exactly how this works, so more research into it would be useful. Not sure how much money a facility would invest if they were exposed to a recall on the issue.

I guess all we can do is keep our fingers crossed until the details come out.

[ThunderEagle]

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I believe this must go to a referendum in each county with a current casino. So it must wait until the next election.

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Actually, I read where if the casino is willing to cover the costs, it can be done in a special election.

From: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/apps/...65/1001/NEWS10
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Each track would ask its county commission to add the question to the next primary or general election ballot. A track could request a special election, but could pay its costs. The bill would also allow a "recall" election after five years.


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The lottery commission already has "rules" setup from where this tried to get passed 3 years ago. The state senate passed a similar bill 3 years ago so hopefully this slides through the senate quickly

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The article that I ready on this "Lottery Commission ready to regulate table games" from the Daily Mail is no longer archived on their web site, but they still have work to do. They are not starting from scratch, but they will need to finalize some things. I think they would have plenty of time to do this from the time this potentially passes the WV Senate to when the actual local elections take place.

[Losing all]

No content...

[ThunderEagle]

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There is also the "tax" problem. 35% will kill most of the profits. I didn't dig real deep into the issue

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Dig into it a bit. Those percentages are misleading, and they are still very much in the "negotiating" stage of things. The casinos themselves offered up a 24% "tax". However part of that money goes back to the tracks to pay purses of the dog/horse racing that goes on. Some of it is what goes into Employee 401k and so forth. The tracks also initially offered up a 24k yearly license fee, that the WV government jacked up to 1.5 million initial and 2.5 million renewal.

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Another problem is the ridiculously low recall requirements even if this thing does pass. I seem to recall that they set it around 5%.

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This is just the % of signature on petitions required to put the recall on the ballot. I believe this still then is just a vote in the county that has the Casino. These counties are not likely to take the table games away.

[tippy]

There is also the $1,500,000.00 licensing fee and the $2,500,000.00 annual license renewal fee that the tracks aren't too thrilled with.

Good info Eagle. I didn't get into the details but I knew the tax was high. Hopefully there is stil enough profit after taxes to get the games. I'm not too encouraged that Poker will be one of them though. Did you find anything addressing poker?

[cardcounter0]

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This is especially applicable to my favorite, POKER, since the house really makes zero off of poker.

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Well if they really make 0, then 0 x Tax Rate = 0.
Look at the tax savings they get on poker! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

You might compare IL gambling tax rates, and see the poker at the casinos there.

[tippy]

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This is especially applicable to my favorite, POKER, since the house really makes zero off of poker.

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Well if they really make 0, then 0 x Tax Rate = 0.
Look at the tax savings they get on poker! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

You might compare IL gambling tax rates, and see the poker at the casinos there.

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LOL, good point cardcounter.

I just hope the 4 tracks can spare the space and personnel for Poker.