The Iowa House has voted to toughen a bill which establishs a moratorium on gambling expansion in Iowa. The bill, as approved by the House, would immediately freeze Iowa’s gambling industry. Senators had approved a moratorium which would allow slot machine expansion through October. Representative Mike Cormack of Fort Dodge said the Senate proposal was unacceptable. In other gambling policy decisions, the House voted to restrict gamblers’ access to ComCheck services which loan money on credit cards. Such loans would only be available in hotels connected to casinos. Representative Ed Fallon (fal’-un) of Des Moines called the bill a turning-point. Some legislators, like Representative Roger Thomas of Elkader, said it was wrong to restrict credit card use in the casinos. The House rejected a Senate-passed proposal to give the race tracks in Altoona, Council Bluffs and Dubuque a 95-and-a-half million dollar tax break over the next five years. Senate leaders say they’ll decide today whether to consider the House changes in the bill. Senator Andy Mc-Kean is an out-spoken critic of gambling.
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