Idaho lawmakers debated electronic pull-tabs and Indian gaming in separate bills last week.
A repeal of a law that allows electronic pull-tab games in Idaho was killed in the Idaho House last week in a vote of 18-52. Stop Predatory Gambling, a Washington D.C. based group, seeks repeal, arguing that the machines, known as touch tabs, looked too much like slot machines.
“The difference between paper pull- tabs and these touch-tab machines is the difference between caffeine and cocaine,” Jo Krutz of Stop Predatory Gambling told lawmakers.
The machines, which use touchscreens, look like old-fashioned pull-tab lotto tickets but without the paper and without a lot of the noise. They are to be found mainly in bars in restaurants. There are about 240 of the machines in 140 locations. They were introduced in 2011 in Idaho when Lottery sales were $2.9 million. Last year sales had increased to $31 million.
The machines can accept about 1,200 bets per hour. Schools receive five-eighths of net profits.
Slot machines were legal in Idaho from 1947-1953 before the legislature declared them to be unconstitutional.
Meanwhile Rep. Tom Loertscher introduced a bill that would ban video gaming terminals at tribal casinos. His bill would gut a 2002 initiative the voters passed that included language whose definition of what constituted a slot machine excepted the machines employed in tribal casinos that do not have levers or dispense coins. His bill would remove that section.
Fellow lawmakers indicated they were reluctant to reignite this old battle, but the House State Affairs Committee did allow the bill to be introduced.
