House bill would reshape gaming oversight, shift sanction authority from AG to a larger commission

Representative Don Koppelman, sponsor of House Bill 1525, told the House Judiciary Committee he has narrowed the bill’s original scope so it focuses on charitable gaming and the oversight problems the current system creates. He said the proposal expands the five-member commission to nine members and adds industry stakeholders, arguing the change would improve engagement and accountability.

Koppelman said the current system delegates promulgation and investigation to the Attorney General’s gaming division, which approves charities and investigates complaints, but that sanction decisions are made outside open meetings. “The attorney general then, kind of has the unilateral ability to decide what's going to happen there. It's not done in, under a context of an open meeting,” Koppelman told the committee. He said the amended bill would send sanctionable civil matters to the gaming commission to be decided in open meetings and televised hearings.

Why it matters: The bill alters who decides sanctions for charitable gaming and authorized sites, and it would add a public-review layer where…