First State veterans groups, lodges and fraternal orders united at Legislative Hall Thursday to make their case for changing the state’s lottery law.
Two months ago state officials began enforcing Delaware’s gambling restrictions and ordered the social clubs to unplug their
video slot machines.
As WDDE’s Joseph Leahy reports, the order has shut down a major source of revenue for the groups, and with it, potentially millions of dollars in donations to their communities.
On Tuesday night, Cub Scout Pack 78 practices leather working in the main hall of American Legion Post Number 2 in Dover.
WDDE visits the video gambling machine rally at Legislative Hall. Producer: Ben Szmidt.
WDDE visits the video gambling machine rally at Legislative Hall. Producer: Ben Szmidt.
[flashvideo file=http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/vets-gaming.flv image="none"/]
The Legion post’s Adjutant, Jeff Crouser, says the scouts are one of a number of groups that meet here for free … even though the space costs money to heat and maintain.
Part of why the Legion can afford to do this, he says, is downstairs in the club room:
Set away from the bar, and green pool tables sit 22 nickel and dime video poker machines line one wall of the club room.
Crouser says these machines pay for major portion of the non-profit’s charitable givings which include scholarships, food donations, and even sponsoring Dover’s Independence Day parade. At least they used to.
“I come in and they say hey you’ve got a certified letter. I opened it and here’s this letter signed by the superintendent of the state police and it said that you have to shut your machines down or face legal action," said Crouser.
Last October, State Police and the Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement Agency, or ATE, sent more than 150 letters to non-profit groups including the VFW, AmVets, DelVets, Moose, Elk, Sons of Italy, and others ordering their video lottery terminals as they’re called be shut down for violating state gambling restrictions.
Since then Crouser estimates the dormant machines have cut off a third of the post’s budget. As a result, he says, all future donation plans have been put on hold.
"Through either attrition or layoffs we have 14 less employees than before this thing started. We’ve had to cut the kitchen hours back<' said Crouser.
[audio:http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/20801_NOSLOTS.mp3|titles=Listen to WDDE All Things Considered host Joseph Leahy's feature on veterans and other social groups seeking a lottery law exemption.]
Richard Reynolds of Elk Lodge 1903 in Dover says unplugging his lodge’s 12 gaming machines is costing the Elks about seven thousand dollars a month.
“It’s impacting us on our ability to help charitable groups, to help kids organizations and to do the holiday, Thanksgiving baskets and Christmas baskets and scholarships,” said Reynolds.
Kimberly Chandler, a spokeswoman for the Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security that oversees the state police and ATE, says the crackdown was in response to citizen complaints in recent months. Concerns have been raised over the machines’ lack of oversight and regulation. She says another problem is that no one is really sure how many machines there are or how much annual revenue they generate.
Nonetheless, there is support in the State Legislature to modify state law and allow the groups to run the machines. Last November, 13 state Representatives wrote to Governor Markell, urging him to suspend enforcement of the restriction until a solution is reached.
Speaker of the House Pete Schwartzkopf (D-Rehoboth Beach) was not among the 13, but supports developing legislation that brings the clubs’ machines into compliance with the law.
“To do that we have to subject them to a lot of the same conditions that the casinos operate under. They have to have approved vendors they have to be a part of an electronic hub, if you will, or system that monitors the machines to make sure they’re paying out what their supposed to be paying out, to understand what the intake is, the gross coming in versus the net,” said Schwartzkopf.
Crouser is not be opposed to additional monitoring, as long as lawmakers act quickly.
“They have a daunting task ahead of them, however, they are going to have a much larger task ahead of them trying to figure out how to fund all of these things that we’ve been funding all of these years,” said Crouser.
Deal or no deal, how Delaware’s 147th General Assembly plays its hand on this issue is likely to be remembered by these social clubs and their communities the next time they head to the ballot box.
