Thursday, March 20, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
Finally, it's ready for a vote.
Lobbyists agreed Wednesday it's going to be close. Beyond that, they were reluctant to make predictions.
"We're cautiously optimistic," said Robert Burpo, who lobbies for the Mescalero Apache tribe.
The bill emerged in the wee hours of Wednesday from the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, the fourth panel to study it.
All told, 55 of the House's 70 members had an opportunity to look at it and offer changes as it went through committees.
The bill expands legalized gambling in New Mexico, authorizing full-scale casinos on Indian lands, up to 500 slot machines at race tracks, and 15 slot machines at veterans' and fraternal clubs.
The legislation started out as Gov. Gary Johnson's proposal, but it was so drastically altered by committees he distanced himself from it.
Among the biggest changes: more stringent regulation than Johnson sought, with a five-member, full-time Gaming Control Board in charge.
Johnson had also proposed that charities be authorized to hold "casino nights" as fund-raisers, but a House committee cut that out of the bill.
The appropriations panel sent the bill to the floor without an endorsement - a vote of "no recommendation."
There was no dissent, although the committee's members include two of the Legislature's staunchest gambling opponents, Chairman Max Coll, D-Santa Fe, and Rep. George Buffett, R-Albuquerque.
House Speaker Raymond Sanchez, D-Albuquerque, had put the word out early in the session not to bottle the bill up in any committee; he wants the full House to vote on it.
The appropriations panel sweetened the bill for race tracks, voting to increase the number of slot machines at tracks from 300 to 500, if the Gaming Control Board approved it.
The committee also increased the hours of machine play, from 12 to 16 daily.
Race tracks are currently in operation in Sunland Park, Ruidoso Downs, Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Under the bill, any tracks licensed by the State Racing Commission could have slots, so if tracks at Farmington and Raton resumed racing, they could also have machines.
Veterans' and fraternal clubs could have 15 slot machines apiece under the bill.
The full-scale casinos that tribes now operate would be legalized; the form for the compact the state and tribes would sign is part of the bill.
But tribes object to the provision that requires them to pay the state 16 percent of the revenue from their gambling machines - but not table games.
They say the revenue-sharing provision is too high and could jeopardize approval of the compacts by the U.S. Secretary of Interior.
An official of the Department of Interior who attended the appropriations committee meeting said the federal agency is concerned about the figure.
Under federal law, states cannot tax tribal casinos. But tribes may agree to share revenue if states agree to provide them either no competition or limited competition in offering casino-style gambling.
Tim Vollmann, Interior Department regional solicitor for the southwest region, said he had discussed the revenue-sharing proposal with department officials, "and there is the concern that it is too high for the level of exclusivity that the tribes would get."
"A reduction in the rate of revenue sharing would reduce the risk of a disapproval," Vollmann told the committee.
The committee, however, rejected proposals to reduce the revenue-sharing percentage.
If the revenue-sharing provision was unacceptable, that could mean disapproval of the entire compact - and, because of the way the bill is written, preclude off-reservation gambling as well.
At the urging of trial lawyers, the committee made a change in the bill that the tribes objected to. It would provide an injured patron the option of suing a casino in state or tribal court or of going to binding arbitration.
Tribal lawyers say it's not valid under federal law to give state courts jurisdiction in such cases.
A much broader bill - allowing gambling in bars and resort hotels - passed the Senate on Monday and was assigned to House committees.
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