The Alaska Senate voted unanimously, 20-0 on Wednesday, to approve a measure that clarifies the state\u2019s gambling laws with respect to businesses like Chuck-e-Cheese and Dave and Buster\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Senate Bill 157 is a \u201chousekeeping measure,\u201d sponsor Sen. Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage, said on the Senate floor. It ensures that the state\u2019s definition of \u201cgambling\u201d does not include games that issue tickets that can then be exchanged for prizes. Claw machines also would be exempted from the state\u2019s gambling statutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a bill to help grow the economy,\u201d McGuire said, explaining that the national Dave and Buster\u2019s chain is preparing to spend $23 million on a 44,000 square-foot bar\/restaurant\/arcade complex in Anchorage\u2019s Dimond Center Mall, but it wanted legal surety first.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis bill is keeping with our desire to focus on the budget,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Sen. Dennis Egan, D-Juneau, voted for the bill and said he did so to protect businesses like Juneau\u2019s Bullwinkle\u2019s Pizza, which has been a destination for his children and grandchildren for more than 40 years.<\/p>\n
SB 157 now goes to the House, where it faces an uncertain future. The House has vowed to put off non-budget items until it completes a budget. SB 157 must navigate the House committee process, pass a full vote of the House, and be signed by Gov. Bill Walker before becoming effective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Alaska Senate voted unanimously, 20-0 on Wednesday, to approve a measure that clarifies the state\u2019s gambling laws with respect to businesses like Chuck-e-Cheese and Dave and Buster\u2019s. Senate Bill 157 is a \u201chousekeeping measure,\u201d sponsor Sen. Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage, said on the Senate floor. It ensures that the state\u2019s definition of \u201cgambling\u201d does not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-33619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33619\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33619"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=33619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}