Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s controversional online poker bill, yet to emerge during Congress’ Lame Duck Session, has two major trade associations at odds reports The Hill.
The North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL) wants to see the bill buried due it banning all forms of online gambling except for poker and as such is sending a delegation of six high-profile state lottery officials to Washington where they will meet lawmakers to lobby against the proposed legislation.
“I think it’s the first time that we have come as a group,” said Arch Gleason, president and chief executive officer of the Kentucky Lottery Corporation. There is a sense of urgency. If this attached to legislation, this can have a negative impact on state lotteries and how their funds are raised for public benefit.”
Gleason, who personally lobbied against the proposed legislation in a letter sent to lawmakers earlier this year (see previous report), will join the combined anti-Reid/Kyl bill delegation in Washington.
On the other side of the coin, the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) is actively trying to rallying support for the bill that its board of directors has unanimously voted to champion in order to protect the retail sector business.
Lyle Beckwith, NACS’s senior vice president of government relations, said: “The lotteries have tried to come to us on numerous occasions saying that this wouldn’t hurt us. They just want to expand their base of customers to people who don’t play these games already. From our perspective, this could hurt our business.”
In the slim event that the bill became legislation, States who opt-in would still be able to sell their tickets online but casino and instant-win type games would be off the menu which means lost revenue for the lotteries.
“It unfairly limits the states’ rights to determine their own destiny,” Gleason said. “The states stand to lose a fair bit of money if they decided to opt in because of the restrictions in the bill.”
But a ban on instant-win games online would be a boon for convenience stores who want to remain the primary retailer of scratch-off games believing that customers given the option to gamble online, would do so, having an adverse affect on their business.
“They just don’t buy lottery tickets when they’re in a store. They buy a cup of coffee. They fill up their tank,” Beckwith said. “I would prefer that they ban everything but this bill is far, far better than nothing being banned. If Reid’s bill doesn’t pass, the lotteries will try to put a casino in everyone’s living room.”
NACS joins hands with the American Gaming Association in its support of the bill, with president and chief executive officer Frank Fahrenkopf welcoming the group saying the NACS is “very active, very knowledgeable and very smart.”