Bill to regulate gaming machines narrowly passes in House

By Abigail Didonna and Sawyer Bess, Missouri News Network
The Missouri House of Representatives narrowly passed a heavily debated bill Wednesday that would legalize and regulate “gray” gaming machines.
House Bill 2989, the “Missouri Video Lottery Regulatory Act,” would establish a centralized regulatory, licensing and taxing system for the gaming machines, which have become popular in gas stations, bodegas, bars and restaurants.
The House voted 83-66 in favor of the bill — the same amount in favor as a similar bill that passed in the House last year before dying in the Senate. It now moves to the Senate, where Republican leadership has indicated the bill is unlikely to pass.
President Pro Tem Sen. Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina, has noted that she does not see regulation on the machines as a top priority.
“If I had the capacity to simply have my personal view of the world today, I suppose they would all cease to exist immediately,” Rep. Bill Owen, R-Springfield, said. “If they’re going to exist in a legal setting, I think they should be regulated, I think they should be taxed.”
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Bill Hardwick, R-Dixon, would also give local municipalities more control over the level of enforcement of illegal gaming machines and even allow them to ban the machines.
The gaming machines are often dubbed “no-chance” machines because the outcome is not selected randomly like other slot machines, but instead operates on a series of predetermined outcomes.
These machines have operated in a legal gray zone and are also often referred to as “gray machines” as a result. The bill would permit similar machines to exist but would require them to be connected to a central computer system and operate with a random outcome. The bill refers to the potential gaming machines in compliance with new rules as Video Lottery Terminals, or VLTs.
Under the proposed legislation, a tax on the revenue from VLTs would be directed to public elementary and secondary education and public higher education institutions. Additionally, a series of licensing fees on operators and manufacturers would pay for the enforcement of the regulations and also contribute to education funds in the state.
Machines currently in operation would be allowed to continue operating through August of 2027 only if owners submit the machine’s full financial, installation and maintenance records to the commission and attorney general for review.
On the House floor Wednesday, the bill received both support and opposition from both sides of the aisle. While some House members echoed concerns over gambling, others said that this bill allowed the state to properly regulate it and receive funding from it.
“If we continue to follow this principle, I think this body, on this principle, should be perfectly fine with legalizing other vices such as prostitution or harmful drugs; we’ll just slap a big ole tax on top of it,” Rep. Bryant Wolfin, R-Ste. Genevieve, said.
Rep. Dean Van Schoiak, R-Savannah, questioned why the House should want to regulate something that has been declared illegal. Last week, a federal judge ruled that slot machines made by Torch Electronics, the primary producer in the state, are illegal gambling devices under state law and Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway has vowed to go after the machines.
“These machines are illegal,” Van Schoiak said. “Why in the world are we changing our laws for an industry that knows the laws of the state of Missouri and says, ‘You can’t keep us from doing this, we’re going to do it anyway,’ and so now we want to make it legal? What in the world are we thinking about here, folks?”