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Committee backs bill to bar certain interactive games, sponsor clarifies penalties
Summary
The committee adopted amendments to HB 295 to prohibit operation or promotion of specified interactive games tied to illegal markets, add a knowing-violation standard and route fines to the problem-gambling fund; one sponsor expressed remaining concerns and several members recorded opposition.
The House Ways and Means Committee on March 18 adopted committee amendments to House Bill 295, a departmental bill that seeks to prohibit the operation, conduct or promotion of certain interactive games linked to illegal markets and to require specific disclosures in gaming license applications.
Delegate Patterson, the sponsor, told the committee the amendment narrows the bill’s scope, specifies a knowing-violation standard for penalties and requires that fines be distributed to the state’s problem-gambling fund. The amendment also removed language from an earlier subcommittee definition the committee deemed unnecessary.
“I think that everyone, at least that I have talked to, wants to get to the same point of where we are prohibiting, essentially unlawful, unregulated, internet gaming,” Delegate Buckle said in a floor comment thanking the subcommittee and staff but signaling her remaining reservations about the bill. She added, “The amendments do make the bill better, and, I’ll vote against at this point in time and hope to continue to talk with people as we move it through.”
Committee members then adopted the amendments and moved the bill favorable with amendments. The transcript records several members as opposed on the vote (Delegates Buckle, Hornberger, Miller, Long, Hartman and Griffith, with Griffith noted as unsure and counted as opposed in the record). The committee recorded that the ayes have it and advanced HB 295 to the next stage.
The measure directs penalty revenue to a problem-gambling fund and applies criminal penalties only for a knowing violation as amended; the committee’s staff and sponsor noted the change was intended to focus enforcement on willful misconduct rather than inadvertent mistakes. The bill will proceed to the House floor calendar for further consideration.
