A bill would authorize slots on certain ferries, but finding support is proving difficult
Alaska Representative Jesse Sumner has proposed legislation to allow gambling aboard Alaska Marine Highway System ferries to generate operating revenue for the state-run system. However, the bill doesn’t have an easy road ahead of it.
Cruise ships in Alaska can currently offer casino games if they’re over three miles offshore. House Bill 197 would permit Vegas-style slot machines and other electronic gambling and is expected to raise funds for Alaska the same way as riverboat casinos do in other states. The proposal faced opposition during its first hearing as lawmakers examined the financial gain, and an expert expressed that implementing the law could be complicated.
Cody Rice, an Alaska House coalition majority aide, said he calculates that the bill “would potentially raise in the order of $20 million or more per year, substantially offsetting the Alaska Marine Highway System’s net costs.”
However, some legislators directly challenged the idea. Representative Louise Stutes remarked that most ferry routes are within three miles of the shore. She is the ferry system’s most ardent legislative supporter. “There’s (sic) only a few routes that this would be applicable for,” she said, which would greatly diminish the earning potential below Rice’s estimate based on ferry ridership and average US gambling participation.
Rice believes the ferry system could extend sailing routes beyond three miles and add new routes to offset that. Many could take the ferry only to gamble, just as people in the Lower 48, he declared. “I suspect it’s conservative,” said Rice of the $20 million annual estimate.
Craig Tornga, marine director of the ferry system, cautioned that Alaska’s ferries, some built in the 1960s, may not have the electrical capacity to support a large number of gambling devices.
Previous gambling bills have also faced lobbying efforts managed by Alaska’s legal pull-tab industry. “I know that that could be a real issue,” said Representative Sarah Vance.
