Sub. HB 386 includes moratorium on Internet sweepstakes parlors

May 27, 2012 – Ohio House Speaker Pro Tem­pore Lou Bless­ing (R-Cincinnati) has announced that the Ohio House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives today con­curred on the con­fer­ence com­mit­tee report for Sub­sti­tute House Bill 386, leg­is­la­tion that makes revi­sions to Ohio’s gaming-related laws related to casi­nos, the state lot­tery, video lot­tery ter­mi­nals, horse rac­ing, and gambling.

“House Bill 386 enacts impor­tant and com­pre­hen­sive changes to Ohio’s gam­ing and casino laws,” said Bless­ing, who spon­sored the leg­is­la­tion. “After much dis­cus­sion in con­fer­ence com­mit­tee, we decided to move for­ward with the Senate-passed ver­sion of the leg­is­la­tion, and I believe that this leg­is­la­tion will greatly ben­e­fit Ohioans and our communities.”

Specif­i­cally, Sub­sti­tute House Bill 386 makes sweep­ing changes to Ohio’s gaming-related laws, includ­ing pro­vi­sions to:

• Include a mora­to­rium on new Inter­net sweep­stakes par­lors until June 30th, 2013 and also pre­vents exist­ing loca­tions from adding new screens

• Pro­vide clar­ity regard­ing how the gross casino rev­enue tax is dis­trib­uted to school districts

• Clar­ify the inspec­tor general’s inves­ti­ga­tory author­ity with regards to casino employees

With a unan­i­mous vote of 6–0, the con­fer­ence com­mit­tee made changes to:

• Pro­vide addi­tional funds for the VLT Lot­tery Sale Agents Com­mis­sion for gam­bling addic­tion and other related services

• Clar­ify por­tions of the rac­ing law at the request of the Har­ness and Thor­ough­bred horse­mens’ asso­ci­a­tions and Ohio Rac­ing Commission

• Direct $2 mil­lion from the Casino Oper­a­tor Set­tle­ment Fund to Com­mu­ni­ties in which a VLT race­track is located unless that com­mu­nity already has a casino

• Request that the gov­er­nor nego­ti­ate an addi­tional allo­ca­tion to local com­mu­ni­ties after that ini­tial disbursement

Sub­sti­tute House Bill 386 passed by a vote of 71–22.

Posted by Randa Wagner on Jun 5 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.