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You are here: Home / House votes to end water requirement for casinos

House votes to end water requirement for casinos

April 19, 2007 By admin

After more bitter gambling debate in the Iowa House on Wednesday, the chamber voted by a wide margin to eliminate the last traces of a law requiring Iowa casinos to be on water. For several years, some casinos have operated as moored barges with a waterbed-like structure underneath to meet the state’s floating casino requirement. Representative Polly Butka, a Democrat from Clinton, asked — what is the point of that?

Butka says, "These riverboats, so called, floating around on a waterbed mattress is getting to be ridiculous. It seems like a really good time to remove that rule." If the governor signs the bill, a Clinton area riverboat and others on the state’s waterways can change to land-based casinos. Gambling critics were angry.

Representative Mike May, a Republican from Spirit Lake, said he opposes anything that makes it easier for investors to open a casino. May says: "I’m not for doing that. We are expanding gambling. We’ve done it this session. We’ve been doing it consistently since 1989. We find a new way each session to expand gambling in the state and I see this as an expansion of gambling."

Stalwart gambling opponents in the House were not able to stop the change and the bill was approved by a vote of 71-to-26. It now goes to the governor. Critics say it clears the way for the state’s racetrack casinos to also get out of the business of racing and operate strictly as casinos. 

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Gambling, Legislature

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