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Committee adopts amendment to gaming bill to include adult amateur athletics; amendment to be revisited with AG staff
Summary
A committee amendment to Senate Bill 20-35 was adopted to add adult amateur athletic activities (including uniforms and equipment) to the list of eligible activities; the committee scheduled additional review with Attorney General's office staff and agreed to revisit the bill in the afternoon session.
The House Education Committee adopted an amendment to Senate Bill 20-35 to restore an explicit reference to adult amateur athletic activities within the state, including team uniforms and equipment.
Representative Schreiber Beck, sponsor of the amendment, said she worked with Deb McDaniels and the Attorney General's office to clarify language and recommended inserting on page 3, line 6, “adult amateur athletic activities within the State, including team uniforms and equipment.” Representative Schreiber Beck emphasized the amendment was not intended to benefit a single organization alone and noted Special Olympics and other groups could fall under the language.
Representative Marshall asked whether the change would allow the Larks Foundation to qualify for charitable gaming; committee discussion clarified that the foundation is a separate nine-member board and that owners and staff are not board members. Several members raised concerns about whether particular nonprofit nonprofit groups, convention/visitor bureaus, Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts, or veteran fraternal organizations would be covered by the bill’s definitions.
After debate, the amendment was called for a roll and the chair recorded the result as “76. 7 6. The motion passes to amend,” reflected in the transcript. The committee agreed to reconvene at 2:30 p.m. to continue work on the measure and to invite staff from the Attorney General's office (Claire Ness and Deb McDaniels were referenced) for clarification on terms such as “tourism,” “designated convention and visitors bureau,” and a proposed grandfather clause.
Committee members asked staff to confirm whether the bill’s language would inadvertently exclude long-standing nonprofit activity or create grandfathering issues for small communities that host intermittent events. The committee adopted the proposed amendment for now and deferred remaining decisions to follow-up meetings.
