The latest efforts to legalize gambling in Hawaii have once again folded, with a deck of bills failing to hit the jackpot in the state Legislature.
Several measures that would have established a state-regulated gambling industry were introduced at the start of the legislative session this year, but all stalled out almost immediately.
House Bill 918, a 98-page measure that would have authorized a 10-year license for a single gaming facility on Oahu — as well as establish a state gaming commission, a state gaming fund, and a state treatment program for compulsive gamblers — never made it to its first committee hearing in the House.
House Bill 344 and Senate Bill 1109, both of which would have allowed for legalized online sports betting, fared little better: The latter never reached its first committee, while the former reached the House Economic Development Committee, which voted to defer the measure.
During that committee hearing, Oahu Rep. Elijah Pierick called gambling “basically preying on the poor for sources of income,” and questioned how advocates could justify opening the state up to a predatory industry.
Committee Chair Daniel Holt, another Oahu lawmaker, said sports betting may “at some point become a worthy cause for us,” but added that the estimated $7 million per year it could bring into the state “may not be worth putting our communities at risk.”
Every other pro-gambling bill introduced this year failed to reach its first committee hearing. Those included Senate Bills 1108 and 1146, which would have established an online fantasy sports registration program, and Senate Bill 1107, which would have established a Hawaii Lottery and Gaming Corporation.
The only other bills to make any progress at all were largely anti-gambling. Senate Bill 935, for example, would have imposed a general excise tax on anyone in the state marketing or selling gambling-centric vacations to destinations such as Las Vegas, as well as establishing a Gambling Addiction Special Fund. A previous version went even further, prohibiting the advertising of out-of-state gambling outright.
“Despite its prohibition, Hawaii carries an economic burden from gambling,” according to the bill. “A 2016 survey update by the National Council on Problem Gambling indicated that the number of problem gamblers had risen to nearly 25,000, and that Hawaii remained one of 10 states that did not set aside funds to specifically address problem gambling.”
The bill added that Hawaii residents make an estimated 300,000 trips to Las Vegas per year,
and that a single Nevada-based gaming corporation, Boyd Gaming, makes about $600 million a year from Hawaii visitors alone.
Nonetheless, SB 935 also died, having never been scheduled for its second committee hearing.
Currently, the only gambling-related bill still alive is SB 591, although it isn’t likely to please gamblers: If passed, the bill would make operating an illegal gambling business in the state a Class C felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
