Internet gambling bill may rise again

Tuesday, May 29, 2001 | 10:38 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The bill to allow Nevada casinos to become the first in the nation to offer Internet gambling died quietly in the Senate Monday, but supporters say it will rise again in the next few days.

"We're still committed to make the bill become law," says Bill Bible, president of the Nevada Resort Association, which pushed the bill. "You never say never."

The Internet gaming bill was only one of several bills affected by legislative rules that required the Senate to pass Assembly bills by Monday and the Assembly to pass Senate bills. Both houses worked until about 9 p.m. to clear the decks.

A vote was never taken on Assembly Bill 578, which was on the desk of the secretary of the Senate. "It got wrapped up in some other issues," Bible said.

The measure would have required the Nevada Gaming Control Board and the state Gaming Commission to draft regulations to oversee Internet gambling.

The U.S. Justice Department takes the position now that Internet gambling is illegal. So state regulators said they wanted to wait to see what happens to court challenges to the federal government's position.

Sen. Mark James, R-Las Vegas, a supporter of the measure, said Internet gaming was a "casualty of the legislative process."

But Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said the bill isn't dead.

Other major issues, such as reapportionment and an energy bill, are still to be processed. But they have been given extensions.

One of the major energy bills -- to help low-income people pay their power bills -- lost in the Senate on an 11-10 vote. It required the vote of 14, or a two-thirds majority, because it imposed a new fee.

Assembly Bill 349, sponsored by Assemblyman David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, would have increased power bills to raise $8 million to $10 million a year to help low-income people pay their heating and cooling bills.

Sen. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas, called it a "terrible" subsidy. He said a person who goes out and works and pays his bill will have part of his money going to "somebody who doesn't care how much power they use."

Earlier the Senate had eliminated a section of the bill that would have exempted some of the big industrial companies in Henderson from paying the fee.

However, supporters of the Goldwater bill said they would try to amend it into the major energy bill that is now before the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee. So the issue is still alive.

The Assembly passed 41-0 the Senior Rx drug program to provide a free insurance plan to low-income senior citizens. Gov. Kenny Guinn and Buckley were at odds over how the program should be shaped for much of the session. But they reached a compromise in which there would be no premiums. The money would come from the tobacco settlement to the state.

The Senate approved 20-1 a bill to simplify the state's sales and use law. And Assembly Bill 455 is a first step toward imposing the sales and use tax on transactions conducted over the Internet with companies outside Nevada.

Taxing the transactions is still in the future, but the bill opens the door to working with other states.

The Assembly also passed Senate Bill 216 to clamp down on swimming pool contractors. Assemblyman Joe Dini, D-Yerington, said some people in Las Vegas lost their home to foreclosure sales by dealing with unscrupulous contactors.

The bill prohibits "bait and switch" advertisements and empowers the state Contractors Board to take a tougher stance against those pool contractors who do not perform.