House panel approves move of charity and bar discipline to Gaming Commission with $25,000 appropriation

Representative Ben Koppelman told the House Judiciary Committee he amended House Bill 1525 to keep most gaming authority with the Attorney General’s Office while moving disciplinary authority over charities and bars to the state Gaming Commission and adding funding for commission operations.

Koppelman, the bill sponsor, said the amendment removes a proposed transfer of the entire gaming division and instead moves only disciplinary hearings into the open, public process of the Gaming Commission so enforcement can be televised and the public can have greater confidence. "We're paying the commissioners more than we were before, so we're going from 75 to $200 a day ... we're going from 5 to 9," Koppelman said while explaining a separate $25,000 appropriation he added to the bill to cover increased costs.

The committee debated whether the $25,000 appropriation for two years is sufficient. Several members, including Rep. Schneider and the committee chair, expressed concern that administrative hearings and potential emergency actions such as closure of operations could be costly and that the Office of Administrative Hearings may bill by the hour for hearing officers. Schneider warned that hearings can run multiple days and generate costs beyond a small appropriation.

Other members said some costs can be absorbed by shifting resources currently used by the Attorney General's Office for the gaming oversight tasks that would move to the commission. Koppelman pointed to a line item in the Attorney General's budget that he said is currently about $7,000 (noted in committee materials as approximately $7,005) and to the broader gaming-tax revenue that flows into the general fund. He told the committee the Attorney General's gaming-related appropriation would change modestly under the biennial budget numbers he discussed.

The committee approved two amendments on voice/roll-call votes. Amendment 1, the main text change creating a nine‑member commission and narrowing the shift of functions, was adopted on a roll call of 12–2. Amendment 2 — the sponsor’s appropriation of $25,000 for two years to support commission operations — passed on a roll call of 10–4. After further discussion the committee voted to give the bill a due‑pass recommendation as amended by a 10–4 roll call. The committee chair requested a fiscal note to provide a more detailed cost estimate and named a bill carrier to handle the bill on the floor.

The committee also discussed whether some decisions should be routed to the Appropriations Committee for more detailed fiscal vetting and whether language in the bill should require referrals in some circumstances. Committee members debated language and whether the lieutenant governor or the governor (or a designee) should chair the commission; a proposed change on chairmanship was withdrawn.

The committee’s action moves the bill forward with a request for a fiscal note. The record shows concern from multiple members about whether the $25,000 appropriation will cover hearings, the cost of hearing officers and any emergency enforcement actions, and about where administrative costs will ultimately be borne.

The bill text as amended keeps the Attorney General’s Office responsible for most gaming oversight while assigning formal disciplinary hearings for charities and bars to the Gaming Commission, expands the commission from five to nine members, and includes a two‑year $25,000 appropriation that the committee asked be re-evaluated during the fiscal‑note process.