Mon. Dec 23rd, 2024
Bill to allow casino gambling on cruise ships runs aground

With skill games and video gaming terminals fighting it out for a chance to join the growing list of legal gaming in Virginia, a bid for yet another venue – cruise ships – foundered and sank Tuesday in the House of Delegates gaming and alcoholic beverage law subcommittee.

House Bill 1478 was aimed at marrying tourism promotion and funding for school construction and repairs, said its sponsor, Del. Shelly Simonds, D-Newport News.

But it ran aground in a panel that may prove fairly skeptical about skill games and video gaming terminals – slot-machine like devices that are each seeking an entry into Virginia, and neither of which really wants the other to make it. The subcommittee killed the bill by a 5-3 vote.

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“If you want to cruise through Virginia waters, why wouldn’t you want to look at the view instead of sitting in a casino,” said Del. Paul Krizek, D-Fairfax, the panel’s chairman, who said he was concerned about how onboard casinos would be regulated.

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Large cruise ships operating out of Baltimore and headed for Bermuda, the Bahamas and Caribbean have been allowed to operate casinos for three decades in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay waters, but have had to shut the games down once south of the mouth of the Potomac River, the state line.

Simonds’ bill would allow large cruise ships – 50,000 tons or more, with space for 2,000 passengers and running cruises of 72 hours or more – to operate casinos if they make at least one international port call.

“This isn’t riverboat gambling,” she said.

simonds

Del. Shelly Simonds, D-Newport News, listens as York County resident Thomas DesLauriers asks a House of Delegates panel to kill her cruise ship casino bill.

She said it would be a way to encourage cruise ship operations from Virginia ports – but it was a group from Yorktown, worried about the impact of giant ships docking at the small historic port, who spoke out against the measure.

Mary Jo O’Bryan, from the “Preserve Yorktown” group, told the panel that she was concerned about the pollution linked to cruise ships.

Former state Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, representing Princess Cruises, which does call at Yorktown, said the bill would encourage tourism. He said it would be a boost for the large Princess vessels that operate from Baltimore and touch on international ports.

Simonds said her bill was not intended to bring large cruise ships to Yorktown, but would help Norfolk’s efforts to develop a cruise ship business. “Maybe they’ll go to Newport News, but we’d have to see what the city council wants,” she said.

Her bill would have required that ships embarking passengers in other states by passing though Virginia’s Bay waters pay a fee of $125,000. Ships embarking passengers in Virginia would pay $50,000.

A Senate bill authorizing skill games – which are slot machine like devices that require a small act by players in order to receive a payout – has passed the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee and is pending before the Senate Finance committee. A House of Delegates version of this bill has not yet been before the gaming subcommittee.

Another Senate bill, which would authorize electronic gaming devices, which are pure games of chance, in convenience stores and truck stops, is pending before the Senate’s gaming subcommittee.

Dave Ress (804) 649-6948

[email protected]

By Xplayer