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Illinois Wed Oct 14 2009
Saving Video Poker -- Assuming it's worth saving
Well, if you want to save video poker and the funding for the capital plan, I think it is still possible, but you would have to try and do it during the veto session and time is running short.
A "solution" would have to provide a better cut to the state and a better cut to local governments. If a local government was able to get a better cut I suspect they would be less likely to vote it down. It's one thing if video poker could pay for one cop, it's different if it could pay for five.
The Solution
Take the machine owner cut of out the system by having the state lottery own and operate the machines.
Under the current system $1,000 of revenue would be split as $300 goes to taxes (state and local), $350 goes to the machine owner and $350 goes to the venue....
Now if you had the state lottery own and operate the machines you could take that $350 the machine owner would get and go with $400 goes to the state, $25 goes to the local government (up significantly) $425 goes to the venue and $50 goes to machine operation. As revenue goes up on the machine in a given month the cut on each subsequent $1,000 in revenue for machine operation would go down, with that money being split between all three parties (location, state and local government).
So under my plan:
- The local government gets more money so they have more motivation to participate
- The state gets more money
Also, the state lottery has operated machines in large number of locations for quite some time, also they would be able to negotiate a single large or a few large machine operation contracts.
Just a thought.
CBlack / October 19, 2009 11:19 AM
Three debates between local supporters and opponents of video poker scheduled this week - more here:
http://communitymediaworkshop.org/newstips/?p=777