June 08, 2011 03:14 AM UTC

Gaming Industry Fleeces Colorado Colleges?

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• by: Colorado Pols

Revisiting a report from the Denver Business Journal’s Ed Sealover late last month:

Colorado gaming commissioners have approved a 5 percent tax decrease for casinos that will enable the businesses to keep about $5 million more of revenue for the fiscal year that begins on July 1.

The across-the-board tax cut – the first given to Colorado’s gambling industry since 1999 ­- will let casinos invest in personnel additions and capital improvements they’ve been unable to make for three years, said Lois Rice, executive director of the Colorado Gaming Association…

Coloradans approved Amendment 50 in November 2008, allowing the casinos to raise their maximum betting limits from $5 to $100, operate around the clock, and bring in new games such as craps and roulette. But while that provided a temporary boost when enacted in July 2009, that boost faded quickly…

Today, the Denver paper reported on the final approval of this casino tax cut, as well as estimates of the revenue the community college system and others will lose. As in the DBJ story above, casinos essentially claim they made a mistake, and that longer hours and new “labor intensive” games are actually hurting them. Add in a few complaints from gaming industry lobbyists about the bad economy (as if they’re the only ones suffering?), and apparently you can get the Colorado Limited Gaming Control Commission to cut your taxes in the midst of a huge state budget shortfall.

The reason that 2008’s Amendment 50 was approved by Colorado voters was not simple desire for higher stakes gambling–unless a majority of voters actually head to Black Hawk, Central City or Cripple Creek on the weekends, in which case there wouldn’t be any way to claim that casinos are “losing money.” Amendment 50 was approved to increase revenue: for all of the state and local recipients of gaming tax funds, but in particular the badly-strapped Colorado Community College System. Casinos funded the Amendment 50 campaign, making big promises about the additional tax revenue it would provide for things voters do care about.

First question: can everybody who has made less money in this recession have a tax cut?

Second question: is there anyone out there foolish enough to believe that casinos didn’t know exactly the effect Amendment 50 would have on their business? Harrah’s? Ameristar? Isle of Capri? Other gaming corporations who have made a science out of this business in Vegas, Atlantic City, and elsewhere–didn’t know that a craps table requires more employees?

No way, folks. Whether the Gaming Commission is in the pocket of the gaming industry or just easily conned, this looks like a swindle–of well-intentioned Colorado voters.