Smooth sailing seen for slot compromise

CARSON CITY -- A one-time hotly contested bill that pitted Las Vegas casinos against International Game Technology over the sale and lease of progressive, linked slot machines such as Megabucks easily passed the Assembly Saturday.

And it shouldn't have any trouble when it arrives in the Senate today.

Assemblyman Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas, noted that a compromise was worked out between International Game Technology, other slot makers and the Nevada Resort Association on Assembly Bill 651. The vote was 35-0 with six members abstaining.

Sam McMullen, lobbyist for IGT, said after passage, "I believe this deal will hold up all the way. We've negotiated and finalized all the issues."

Jim Mulhall, vice president for government relations for the Nevada Resort Association, said he did not foresee any problems in gaining approval in the Senate.

When initially introduced, it would have required IGT, which is the nation's largest maker of electronic gaming devices, and manufacturers of other progressive slots that are linked among casinos, to offer them for sale, rather than just leasing them as they do now. That was deleted in the compromise hammered out.

Manendo said the current bill allows an operator of an inter-casino linked slot system "to impose different terms and conditions on different licenses, including different prices ..." The bill allows the linked slots to be either sold or leased to casinos, he said.

The bill, McMullen said, "clarifies for manufacturers their ability to sell the machines for whatever terms they want to and to set the prices. It allows them to continue their current practices.'

The bill provides that slot manufacturers must pay their proportionate share of the state gaming taxes.

McMullen said, "We pay taxes now through the contracts (with the casinos). This just clarifies how it happens. It still allows it to be a matter of contract."

Mulhall said, however, that the bill would prohibit slot operators from "passing their tax burden to anyone else. They must pay their share of the tax. Right now we're paying the full tax liability."

The bill says the Nevada Gaming Commission must establish regulations on how much of each coin played in these progressive machines goes to enlarge the jackpot.

Mulhall said, "We're concerned there are no rules governing the meter that shows the big mega jackpots. This bill doesn't dictate the rules but it tells the Gaming Control Board and the Gaming Commission to look at it."

He said gaming regulators would establish how much cash of each bet should go to the jackpot. "All slot machines have some sort of minimum governing them. The large jackpot meters have no regulation."

As an example, he said, suppose the jackpot on the meter was $14 million and somebody bet $1. There is no rule on what percentage of that dollar should go to advance the jackpot.

"Clearly there are expenses in running the system and making sure there is enough money in reverse," Mulhall said. So these issues of the minimum amount being used to push up the jackpot will be left up to the Commission. Manendo said the current inter-casino linked slot system can continue to be operated in the same way until the Commission adopts the regulations or until July 1, 2000, whichever is earlier.

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