Senate approves charitable gambling bill
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The bill is expected to go before the full House for its consideration on Wednesday.
Sen. Roy Herron, D-Dresden, had been fighting for weeks to give the secretary of state’s office the ability to enforce provisions of the bill. Secretary of State Riley Darnell also had requested that authority since it’s his responsibility to make sure the charity games are administered properly.
The Senate previously adopted an amendment designed with the help of Gov. Phil Bredesen’s staff that prevented third-party operators from running the games, which was a major concern of some members.
On Monday, after a 90-minute Finance Committee meeting, Herron, bill sponsor Sen. Jim Kyle, D-Memphis, and Darnell compromised.
The change allows the secretary of state to charge up to $700 per application and use some of the money to ensure information charities submit to his office is correct, and all rules are being followed.
“I continue to have concerns, but the two largest ones I had have been addressed,” Herron said. “This is a vast improvement.”
Still he said, “my concern is that we’ve been down this road before” with the Rocky Top scandal of the 1980s. “I’m afraid this will be more about gambling than charity,” he said.
Allowing 501(c)3 organizations to hold annual gambling events for the purpose of raising money was permitted under the constitutional amendment voters adopted in November 2002, the same vote that paved the way for the state lottery.
The bill has endured a difficult trip through the Legislature, partly due to the state’s checkered history with charity gambling. Some legislators feared a return to the wide-open, poorly regulated days of massive bingo operations that led to the federal Rocky Top investigation, which led to the indictment of some officials and the suicide of the secretary of state.
During the Finance Committee meeting, Kyle argued against most of Herron’s amendments, saying they would increase the bill’s cost and force it to wait on approval of the budget, effectively killing it for this year.
“The people of Tennessee voted for this,” Kyle argued. “That appears to offend some who think they know better.”
Sen. David Fowler, R-Signal Mountain, maintained the bill allows the secretary of state to reject an application but gave him no way of knowing if the information in it was accurate.
“Criminals break the law,” he said. “How are we going to know if they’re lying on their applications? The district attorney isn’t going to investigate this.”
The amendment satisfied Kyle’s concern because money used to fund the investigations will come out of applicant fees instead of tax funds. That kept it from having to wait on approval of the budget.
After the bill was adopted by a 22-6 vote, Kyle said he was “satisfied with all the changes that have been made. One reason this bill has moved so fast is that we’ve been amenable to all changes.”
He said the point is to give charities “an opportunity raise some money they otherwise wouldn’t have.”
Charities have until April 13 to submit an application to hold a gambling event within the next year.
All the games have to be approved by a two-thirds vote of both houses of the General Assembly.
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See Senate bill 3212 at:
Tennessee General Assembly: http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/