HCS/SB 615 - This act makes several changes in gaming law. Current law establishes a one-year period for the initial license of an excursion gambling boat and for its first renewal. This act allows the Missouri Gaming Commission to set the initial and renewal license periods from at least three years to no more than six years in duration. A gambling boat licensee must have the Commission's prior written approval before selling or giving gambling games to another licensee. The associated facilities of a gambling boat may provide for nongaming areas, food service and gift shops.

Current law authorizes the Gaming Commission to make assessments of the amount of any adjusted gross receipts taxes due. This act increases the time during which a licensee can petition for a reassessment from ten days to twenty days of the date the assessment was mailed or delivered. An assessment is final if a request for reassessment if not received by the commission within twenty days.

A person is guilty of a Class B misdemeanor for the following actions: permitting a person under the age of 21 to make a wager while on an excursion gambling boat; being a person under the age of 21 and making or attempting to make a wager while on such a boat; or aiding a person under the age of 21 to enter a gambling boat or in making an attempt to make a wager while on the boat.

The act requires outpatient centers for compulsive gamblers and their families to be established and to be funded through appropriations from the Gaming Commission Fund.

The act excludes from the definitions of gambling and gambling device any amusement device that only confers an immediate right of replay, noncash prizes or other representations of value which may be redeemed on the premises for something in value, excluding cash, intoxicating beer or liquor, nonintoxicating beer, or tobacco products.

This act legalizes the sale or purchase of a slot machine for operation at the residence of the owner, as long as it is not being used for gambling purposes. The seller of such a slot machine is required to notify the Gaming Commission of the name and address of the purchaser and the serial number of the slot machine; the purchaser is required to register the machine with the Commission and pay a ten-dollar registration fee.

The act prohibits the supervisor of liquor control from issuing a violation for any act associated with an amusement device unless the supervisor has actual knowledge that the device was used for illegal gambling or the licensee knowingly or purposefully participated in the act that constituted the illegal gambling.
RUSS HEMBREE