Bingo: State senator drops electronic bingo bill
Just days ago, state Sen. Darrell Steinberg, the incoming leader of the Senate, said he planned to push ahead with his legislation despite broad opposition from the state's powerful gaming tribes.
Yesterday, Steinberg reconsidered after concluding that a favorable lower court ruling protects bingo machines that generate more than $100,000 a year for a local charity, WIND Youth Services, that asked him to carry the bingo bill.
The bill, SB 1626, would have legalized electronic bingo cards, like those used in some versions of bingo machines. The measure was scheduled for its first committee hearing Tuesday.
Tribes contend that bingo machines violate a monopoly on slot machines and other electronic gaming devices that is guaranteed in their state gambling agreements. A breach of that monopoly would allow them to suspend hundreds of millions of dollars a year in payments to the state, one tribal attorney has warned.
Representatives of WIND, which runs a shelter for homeless children, could not be reached for comment. But the president of another charity that depends on the same machines was disappointed, if not surprised, by the move.
Steinberg becomes the second Senate Democrat to shelve a
high-profile bingo-expansion measure in the face of tribal opposition.
On Monday, Sen. Gil Cedillo of Los Angeles withdrew SB 1328, which
would have allowed interconnected sessions of conventional bingo and
lifted the $250 limit on bingo prizes.
Written by James P. Sweeney
www.signonsandiego.com
