Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004 | 10:59 a.m.
Casino revenue drops 4.5%
NEW ORLEANS -- Winnings from gamblers at Louisiana's state-licensed casinos dropped 4.5 percent last month in comparison to August 2003, despite the addition of a new gambling outlet at Evangeline Downs in Opelousas, state police reported.
Gamblers lost $173.8 million at the state's 14 riverboat casinos, Harrah's New Orleans Casino and slot-machine casinos at three race tracks.
The Shreveport-Bossier City market, consisting of five riverboats and a slot casino at Louisiana Downs, won $66.6 million in August. The Lake Charles market, including four riverboats and the Delta Downs slot casino at Vinton, won $37.8 million.
The New Orleans market, consisting of three riverboats and Harrah's downtown casino in the city, won $49.9 million, while the two riverboats in Baton Rouge pulled in $14.2 million.
The figures do not include the state's three Indian casinos, which are not required to report publicly their winnings from gamblers.
Tribes take in $1.35 billion
PHOENIX -- Arizona's tribal casinos took in $1.35 billion in revenue during the last fiscal year, the state gaming department reported Wednesday.
The revenue, which previously could not be disclosed by the department because of agreements with the tribes, cover the state's 22 casinos but were not broken out by tribe.
The disclosure of the aggregate revenue is part of an initiative passed by voters in 2002 giving tribes the right to expand casinos in exchange for contributions to a group of state funds.
The tribes contributed nearly $38 million to funds that paid for gambling regulators, problem gambler programs, education, hospital services, conservation and tourism. Another $2.6 million was contributed by the tribes to local governments.
Christa Severns, a spokeswoman for the Department of Gaming, said officials expect the contributions to state funds to climb to nearly $61 million in the current fiscal year -- the first one under which all the casinos will be operating for the full year using the expanded gambling agreements.
Proposal would require Indian gambling to get legislative OK
BISMARCK, N.D. -- A committee of lawmakers is considering a bill that would require legislative approval for state gambling agreements with American Indian tribes.
Gambling on the state's five Indian reservations currently is regulated by detailed agreements called compacts, which are negotiated by tribal leaders and the governor.
A bill that would alter those rules is being drafted for the Legislature's Budget Committee on Human Services, which discussed problems collecting child support on reservations at a recent meeting.
The proposed legislation was requested by Sen. Judy Lee, R-West Fargo. The bill is not aimed at addressing any major problems with tribal casinos, but the Legislature needs to have more influence in the gambling arrangements, she said.
House leader seeks ethics ruling for gambling investor
HARRISBURG, Pa. -- The State Ethics Commission will consider next week whether Pennsylvania law permits an insurance executive who chairs Pittsburgh's financial oversight board to simultaneously hold a gambling license.
House Majority Leader Sam Smith, R-Jefferson, wants the commission to clarify whether Bill Lieberman, chairman of Pittsburgh's Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, can have a stake in a gambling operation at the same time he heads up the five-person state-appointed board.
Lieberman said he and another investor are looking into pursuing a gambling license, perhaps for a standalone parlor in downtown Pittsburgh. If the commission rules that such a conflict exists at its meeting in Erie on Tuesday, Lieberman said, and he eventually obtains a gambling license, he will step down from the authority.
He downplayed the potential for a conflict of interest, saying the only possible conflict would be in the case of a downtown Pittsburgh parlor, but said he would abide by the ethics ruling.
"I don't see how it's any different than buying a building in Pittsburgh and asking (the city) for an adjustment on the taxes," he said.
archive
