Hotels get watered-down bill on booze

Brendan Riley

Tuesday, June 5, 2001 | 10:26 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state Senate gave final legislative approval early today to a watered-down bill that began as a plan to let some major Nevada hotels truck booze statewide, bypassing wholesalers who now handle such shipments.

Assembly Bill 669 was amended to only permit liquor inventory transfers among affiliated hotels in a specific marketing area.

For example, the diluted bill lets gambling giants such as Park Place, Harrah's and Mandalay Resort Group, with numerous resorts around Nevada, shift booze from overstocked to understocked properties in Las Vegas -- but not to affiliates in the Reno or Tahoe areas.

Advocates said AB669 was intended to help major casinos that buy too much liquor for specific events, such as New Years celebrations that turn out to be tamer than expected. But the original bill went further than that.

Also stripped from AB669, just introduced just over a week ago, was a provision that would have drawn the state Taxation Department into disputes between liquor wholesalers and retailers, including the affiliated casinos. That's a significant regulatory change -- and one not requested by the agency.

Officials said that's a significant regulatory change -- and not one they requested. They added it would have meant an added workload and cost the agency about $90,000 over the next two years. With the amendment, even the $20,000 in the original bill is gone.

AB669 is being pushed in the Legislature by lobbyists Morgan Baumgartner and Steve Horsford, representing the Nevada Resort Association which is made up of the state's biggest hotel-casinos.

Lobbyist Harvey Whittemore, whose many clients include the NRA, said he wasn't involved in the legislation. But he had favored key elements during earlier workshops held by the state Taxation Department.

That included having the department resolve retailer-wholesaler disputes, agency officials confirmed.

The workshops also had included discussion of possible penalties for violations of the state laws governing the liquor industry -- another significant change.

Penalties of up to $1,000 are in AB669. But with the amendments, the penalties now will apply only to casinos that overstep their new liquor-shipping authority.