Hawaii Lawmaker Wants To Ban Nevada Casino Ads In The State
Well, this isn’t chill at all. A Hawaii state senator has introduced a bill that would say “aloha” to Nevada-based casino ads. (In this case, ‘aloha’ would mean goodbye)
Hawaii State Senator Stanley Chang (D) wants to penalize the ‘9th Island’ for telling the other eight islands what’s good. Senate Bill 935 was introduced last month, but is just coming to light now, and is squarely aimed at Nevada’s gaming industry.
The Senate Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection will discuss the bill Thursday morning. The full text is here, but here’s the round-up on what the bill would accomplish.
- The bill would ban ads for Nevada-based hotels, resorts or other services that promote casinos or gambling devices licensed by the Nevada Gaming Commission. Radio, television, online, newspapers – all of it.
- Las Vegas vacation packages that promote Nevada gambling would be taxed.
Here’s why this Hawaii State Senator wants to ban Nevada Casino Ads…
“Hawaii residents take an estimated three hundred thousand trips to Las Vegas and other gambling destinations each year, with many residents making multiple trips per year. In 2011, it was reported that Boyd Gaming, a Nevada-based gaming corporation, earned about $600,000,000 from Hawaii annually. Further, in a 2021 annual investor report, Boyd Gaming highlighted that customers from the Hawaiian market comprised more than half of the room nights sold at The California, the Fremont, and Main Street Station, and that decreases in Hawaiian market spending could adversely affect their business and financial condition. As testified to the house of representatives committee on tourism in 2012 by a longtime lobbyist for gambling interests in Hawaii, the “prohibition of that which is legal nearly everywhere else costs Hawaii $1,000,000,000 each year in outgoing dollars and returns none”.
Despite its prohibition, Hawaii carries an economic burden from gambling. A 2009 study by the National Council on Problem Gambling estimated that the social costs of gambling addiction in Hawaii from twenty thousand problem gamblers and ten thousand pathological gamblers was $26,300,000; however, no public funding was provided for gambling treatment and prevention. A 2016 survey update by the National Council on Problem Gambling indicated that the number of problem gamblers had risen to nearly twenty-five thousand, and that Hawaii remained one of ten states that did not set aside funds to specifically address problem gambling.”
It’s probably not going anywhere…
Wow. So, California could advertise their properties? Tough not to take this bill personally. The likelihood of it becoming law is quite low, due to the obvious anti-First Amendment vibes going on here. For what it’s worth, we aren’t banning Zippy’s any time soon – that is if they ever open.
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