Massachusetts taxpayers: Be Forewarned.

John Epstein offered this --

Once states are hooked on the (dwindling) revenue, casinos always find a way to go back on their promises, leaving taxpayers to pick up the pieces -- and the tab!

Massachusetts taxpayers: Be Forewarned.

W.Va. Senate moves to lower fees on casinos

By DAVID GUTMAN, Associated Press

Updated 4:57 pm, Tuesday, April 2, 2013

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — As West Virginia casino revenues decline, the state Senate has endorsed giving them a one-time break in fees that would amount to a $4 million annual loss in state revenue.

 

The Wheeling Island racetrack casino has said that it will not renew its table gaming license unless its $2.5 million annual fee is lowered. To avoid the appearance of unfairness, the Senate Finance Committee agreed to lower the fees on all four racetrack casinos in the state by $1 million while the future of the gambling industry in the state is studied. The other three racetrack casinos did not ask for fee reductions.

Wheeling Island representatives have said they expect to lose money on table games this year.

In the first nine months of this fiscal year, Wheeling Island has grossed more than $6 million in table game revenue. They have paid about $2 million in taxes on table games, not including the $2.5 million licensing fee.

Sen. Douglas Facemire, a grocery store owner, compared the casino to his business and asked why

Wheeling was presenting isolated table game revenue rather than overall casino revenue.

"All you tell us is table games," Facemire said. "In a grocery store you have a meat department and a produce department but at the end of the day all I'm concerned with is the grocery store."

All of the state's casinos make the vast majority of their money on slot machines and use table games to help attract a broader audience. Wheeling Island has grossed more than $72 million on video slot machines in the first nine months of this fiscal year.

Revenue from the table game fees pay for in-home health care services for seniors. The state lottery commission has said it can free up $4 million in administrative funds to cover the lost fees, but just for one year.

Finance Committee Chairman Roman Prezioso said that the money for seniors was too important to risk losing, should Wheeling Island follow through on its threat to not renew its table game license.
"I think if that money wasn't tied to senior programs we'd have called their bluff," Prezioso said. "But how are you going to do that? I can't bluff with senior programs, guys. If they were bluffing, they had us over a barrel."

Earlier this week in another committee, Sen. Herb Snyder had proposed lowering the fees but recouping the money by taking back some of the subsidies that the state gives casinos to upgrade their slot machines. The casino industry objected.

The state pays 50 percent of the cost of replacement slot machines, up to $10 million per year, into a "modernization fund" to help casinos remain competitive with other states.

But Snyder today voted in opposition to his own proposal. He said that there was not enough money in the modernization fund. This year the state will provide the full $10 million in subsidies for the casinos to buy new slot machines, but next year Snyder expects that fund to drop to $8 million and to $6 million or $7 million the year after that.

The full Senate voted along party lines to approve the amendments that came from the Finance Committee. All eight Republicans present voted against the amendments. The Senate will vote on the full bill tomorrow.

Sen. Craig Blair said that casino revenues were on a downward trend because of competition from neighboring states and that a one-time cut in fees would do no good.

"The tracks should be able to help themselves. They've been turning profits for years," Blair said, referring to the horse-racing track components of the operations. "We're throwing good money after bad. It's called chasing a bet, and you always lose when you chase a bet."

Blair was also upset that Wheeling Island did not appear before the committee to present its case and its revenues.

"The tracks can't come in here with the frigging numbers? We've got to sit here and dig it up on my phone?" Blair asked incredulously. "You want money but you are so damn ill-prepared, why should you get it? Certainly if I walked into a bank and did this, would you give me the money if you were sitting on the other side? No."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/W-Va-Senate-moves-to-lower-fees-on-casinos-4404011.php#ixzz2PNAZ51Ir