Sports Betting, Gambling, Online Casinos and More

Riverbelle Casino

Bonus: $200
Deposit: $50
Over 97 Casino Games
[link to casino]

Gaming Club online casinos

Bonus: 100% Matching Deposit
Deposit: $150
Over 97 online casinos Games
[link to casino]

Black Jack

Baccarat

Craps

Roulette

Caribbean Stud Poker

Keno

Links

Webmasters

Plaza Online Casinos TPMG Online Casinos Online Casinos

Video Poker Bill Seeks Bigger Cut Of Proceeds May 9, 2003

SALEM:- As it prepares to make additional cuts to human services, education and other programs, the Legislature was asked Thursday to consider offsetting those reductions by slicing into the profits collected by bars and taverns from state-owned video poker machines.

When the Legislature authorized the expansion of the Oregon State Lottery 12 years ago to include video gambling, it also put the Lottery Commission in charge of setting commission rates for the bars, taverns and lounges that provide space for the machines.

Those commission rates, which average 32 percent of the overall video poker take, amount to about $154 million a year in profits for these businesses - an average of $79,000 for the 1,950 retailers and more than $200,000 for the 102 highest-volume outlets, according to Oregon State Lottery data from 2002.

With the state's services to seniors, the sick and disabled reeling from program cuts, which also have hit education, public safety, and consumer and environmental protection programs, the Senate Rules Committee was asked at its public hearing on Senate Bill 279 to reduce those profits roughly by half. That would shift about $75 million away from bars, taverns and restaurant lounges each year, making it available for public services.

"What we're asking for is that the deck be evenly stacked," said Jacqueline Zimmer Jones, a lobbyist for senior services who said the pain of Oregon's budget shortfall should be spread around.

Although the Oregon Lottery Commission has twice revamped its formula for compensating video poker retailers, backers of SB 279, including sponsoring Sen. Tony Corcoran, D-Cottage Grove, said it's time to restrict how generously bars and taverns should be rewarded when the next contracts are up for negotiation in 2004. His bill would limit compensation rates to 15 percent.

State law requires that lottery commissions be set to maximize state revenues, while also assuring a reasonable rate of return to those retailers who sell lottery tickets or provide space for video gambling machines.

Bill Perry, lobbyist for the Oregon Restaurant Association, said SB 279 endangers the successful partnership between the state lottery and the nearly 2,000 video-poker retailers, which have teamed up to provide hundreds of millions of dollars to education and other state-funded programs over the past decade.

And for individual businesses, the bill amounts to jerking away money that owners have penciled into their business plans to get them through the coming years. Those expenses include paying back loans, providing worker benefits and wages.

Resource 1 Resource 2 Resource 3 Resource 4 Resource 5 Resource 5 Resource 6 Resource 7 Resource 8 Resource 9 Resource 10 Resouce 11 Resource 12 Resource 13 Resource 14 Resource 15 Resource 16 Resource 17 Resource 18 Resource 19 Resource 20 Resource 21 Resource 22 Resource 23 Resource 24 Resource 25 Resource 26 Resource 27 Resource 28 Resource 29 Resource 30 Resource 31 Resource 32 Resource 33 Resource 34 Resource 35 Resource 36 Resource 37 Resource 38 Resource 39 Resource 40 Resource 41 Resource 42 Resource 42 Resource 43 Resource 44 Resource 45 Resource 46 Resource 47 Resource 48 Resource 49 Resource 50 Resource 51 Resource 52 Resource 53 Resource 54 Resource 55 Resource 56 Resource 57 Resource 58 Resource 59 Resource 60 Resource 61 Resource 62 Resource 63 Resource 64 Resource 65 Resource 66 Resource 67 Resource 68 Resource 69 Resource 70 Resource 71 Resource 72 Resource 73 Resource 74 Resource 75 Resource 76 Resource 77 Resource 78 Resource 79 Resource 80 Resource 81 Resource 82 Resource 83 Resource 84 Resource 85 Resource 86 Resource 87 Resource 88 Resource 89 Resource 90 Resource 91 Resource 92 Resource 93 Resource 94 Resource 95 Resource 96 Resource 97 Resource 98 Resource 99 Resource 100