For Immediate Release
Contact: Sheila McCant
LA House of Representatives
Office of Public Information
Phone: (225) 342-9795
FAX: (225) 219-4380
December 3, 1998
HOUSE COMMITTEE TO LOOK
INTO GAMBLING REGULATION
The Louisiana House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice will meet on Tuesday, December 8, to discuss House Study Request 5 passed by the full House in the 1998 Regular Session. The request calls for the committee to study policies and procedures of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board and the Louisiana State Police Gaming Enforcement Division for regulating the state's riverboat casinos. The request also urges the committee to hold a Legislative Outreach Initiative meeting to review operations at riverboats in East Baton Rouge parish.
The committee will tour the Casino Rouge riverboat casino at 10:30 a.m. to review gaming operations, security measures, game design, construction and operating procedures.
"This meeting and tour are designed to further
educate the Criminal Justice Committee on daily operations of the riverboat gaming
industry in our state," said committee
chairman Steve Windhorst, R-Terrytown. "Our committee is
called upon to cast critical votes on gaming measures, therefore it is important that we
have a thorough working knowledge of the industry's operating procedures."
Windhorst also stated that the State Police Gaming Division has voiced some concern regarding security in the past.
"We have received testimony by the State Police that counting
of money
is often 'on the honor system,' and that State Police are in serious need of a presence on
the board," he said, and added that he hopes the tour will give those attending some
insight.
Windhorst also said that he and Speaker Pro Tempore Peppi Bruneau are sponsoring a bill to require that all electronic devices aboard river boats, such as slot machines, be electronically connected to state police.
"We want to make machines on river boats as secure and tamper-proof as video poker machines on land are."
The bill will require that the machines report all activity while docked, and that they be equipped with chips which collect all data while sailing, and report it to state police upon return to the boat's berth.
A public hearing is tentatively scheduled for 2:00 p.m. that afternoon in House Committee Room 6 at the State Capitol.
The tour and public hearing are part of the House of Representative's ongoing Legislative Outreach Initiative, a program conceived by Speaker of the House Hunt Downer. It is designed to initiate contact between citizens of Louisiana and lawmakers. Downer said the program "is intended to better facilitate citizen participation in the legislative process and give legislators a better understanding of the issues. Too many times legislators are forced to cast critical votes concerning areas with which they are not familiar. Also, our citizens cannot always travel to Baton Rouge to participate in the legislative process. Hopefully, this will solve both problems."
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www.legis.state.la.us/pubinfo/home.htm
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is a schedule of the tour and pubic hearing. Any help you can provide by informing the public will be appreciated.
Tuesday, December 8
10:30 a.m. Tour
Casino Rouge Riverboat Casino
1717 River Road
Baton Rouge
2:00 p.m. Public Hearing
House Committee Room 6
State Capitol
Baton Rouge