House Judiciary weighs restoring Gaming Commission, adds subcommittee to reconcile hearing, appeal rules

The House Judiciary Committee on April 7 considered three amendments to Senate Bill 22-24 that would re-establish and revise oversight for charitable gaming, including per-diem compensation, quarterly meetings, executive-session authority, a $25,000 appropriation and new hearing and appeal procedures for the Attorney General’s enforcement actions.

Senator Yana Merdahl, the prime sponsor of SB 22-24, told the committee the amendment before members is a “hog house amendment” that largely restores the commission’s prior structure and adds a per-diem and an appropriation. She said the governor plans to nominate two commission members within about a week to 10 days and that the new administration is prepared to staff the commission. She also presented statewide figures for charitable-gaming proceeds, saying they rose from about $268 million in 2018 to roughly $2.37 billion in 2024 (she later restated the larger number as $2.67 billion during remarks).

Representative Christiansen presented a narrow amendment to add a state gaming stamp specifically for paper pull tabs and to exclude electronic pull-tab devices from that stamping requirement, saying the…