Dozens of people representing charities and millionaire suppliers held a peaceful demonstration at the Lansing Capitol Building on Sept. 16.
The purpose was to try to pressure the House of Representatives to get SB878 out of committee and to the floor for a vote. SB878 was introduced to the Senate as a rewrite of the Traxler-McCauley-Law-Bowman Bingo Act that would enable poker rooms to have six charities at a time and increase the maximum amount of chips they could sell per day. You can find all the changes at mi.gov.
Charities and suppliers sued over Gov. Rick Snyder’s “emergency rules,” looking for the courts to impose an injunction against the changes.
The emergency rules limit locations to only four nights per week, two charities per day (though only one charity was being approved) and charities must supply three workers at a time, among other things.
The Michigan Gaming Control Board also imposed a $650 max expenses for the charity that stopped all but one room from running tournaments.
At the hearing, a compromise was reached to avoid further litigation. Locations still were limited to four days per week, MGCB is required to approve both charities if they’re qualified and the suppliers can charge $900 per day or 45 percent, whichever is less.
Let’s hope this is the end of the fighting and more rooms will open throughout the state giving us more choices on where to play.
— Email Scott at anteupscottm@gmail.com.
