Published: October 15, 2009 03:52 pm      

A bit premature — 10/16/09

It is difficult to comment on proposals yet to be finalized

Tuesday night’s forum at the Boyd County Fairgrounds conducted by the Kentucky Department of Charitable Gaming was premature. It was called to get public comments to proposed reforms that will affect local gaming operations, but it is difficult to comment on changes that are still a work in progress.

Those attending the forum — mostly non-profit agencies that operate area charitable bingo and other games of chance — had lots of questions about the proposals, but they received few answers. In fact, Kentucky Department of Charitable Gaming Commissioner Henry G. Lackey said the agency doesn’t have answers because the proposals have not be finalized. He promised that Kentucky’s system will be new and “unlike any other system” used for gaming nationwide, but Lackey could not say just how it will be different.

Lackey said the details of the new system will depend on the results of requests for proposals and bids the department let last week, which are not due until early December, and as we all know, the devil usually is in the details.

Under Lackey’s leadership, DCG officials are seeking proposals to move charitable gaming in the state to a bar code inventory system to monitor in real time the receipts, payouts and inventory of each licensed charity. The agency would become the central point for contracting, purchasing and tracking the sale of bingo and pull-tab games. A new computerized software system would track inventory from manufacturers through distributors to organizations and would eliminate most of the manual reporting charities are now required to do.

Why the proposed changes? Well, DCG officials apparently are convinced that illegal bootlegged games account for an estimated $100 million in sales, resulting in a loss of $10 million for charitable organizations and $600,000 in lost state fees.

The nearly three dozen players and representatives from charities, manufacturers and distributors attending Tuesday’s forum clearly were skeptical abut the reforms. Some are taking a wait-and-see attitude, while others are downright opposed to them.

A bill that would encompass the proposed changes has yet to be filed for consideration by the 2010 Kentucky General Assembly, but even if the changes are approved next year by legislators, Lackey said the earliest the reforms could be in place would be 2011.

We commend the DCG for actively seeking public input for the proposals, but it is difficult to comment on proposals that have yet to be finalized. Once the bill is written, the DCG should again schedule forums throughout the state to get the comments of those local charities that depend on bingo and other games of chance to raise essential funds.

Following the forum, Jack McClelland of El Hasa Shrine Temple summed up the thoughts of many of those at the forum when he said he was “not any more clear than I was before I got here” on the reforms. “I sort of think they got the cart before the horse.”

Exactly so. There is a time to actively seek comments at forums. Tuesday’s forum at the fairgrounds was not one of the time.