Immediate Release
Contact, Jim Rubens, 603-359-3300
The House and Senate in special session yesterday adopted a budget fix without legalizing slot casinos. A separate special session
bill - allowing 4 casinos, 10,000 slot machines, and 600 gambling tables, without specified casino locations - passed the Senate 14-9, but was defeated in the House by 191 to 141, a margin of 57.5% to 42.5%.
The April 21 vote on SB489 - which would have allowed 6 casinos, 17,000 slot machines, and 900 gambling tables, with 3 specific property owners granted casino monopolies in the bill - passed the Senate 14-10, but was defeated by the House by 212 to 158.
Thirty-eight (38) fewer Reps were in attendance voting yesterday compared with the April vote, but the margins in both bodies on the two different casino bills were almost exactly identical. Ten Reps in yesterday's vote switched from Yes to NO; Eight from NO to Yes. (Some of these "switch" comparisons are expressed preferences as of April for those not voting on slots in April).
To find out how each Rep voted click here, then search 2010, then SSSB1 and 6/09/10, then view votes for SSSB1.
Conclusion: today's "more limited" slot casino bill (which sponsors claim address concerns raised by the House) failed to gain any additional support, with positions in the current legislature having become hardened.
"The slots casino fight is over for this session - we won - but begins again immediately in the campaigns for House and Senate this fall. The predatory gambling industry has proven that it will spend millions and will now turn its attention to defeating anti-casino candidates in the September primaries and the November general election," said Jim Rubens, Chair, GSCAEG.
