Jeremy Chou, attorney with Givens Pursley and lobbyist for Intralot USA, the vendor for the state lottery, spoke against HB 279, the bill to create a new state gaming commission. “You are creating a super-agency,” he said. “It is a super-bureauratic gaming agency. There will be diff mechanisms for licensing for lottery retailers, different mechanisms of licensing for simulcast,” and every other type of gaming, “all in one. … It will take more employees, more staff.” He pointed to a number of problems in the wording of the bill, including a section he said he reads as actually cutting funding to horse racing purses and horse breeders programs. “It looks like the drafting was made in haste, and when it’s made in haste, you’re always going to have issues,” he said.

Chou said, “The lottery is operating efficiently. … You have a problem at the Racing Commission, I think. … But if you do have a problem with the Racing Commission, we ask you, fix the Racing Commission. I don’t think the answer is the creation of a new agency. I don’t think that addresses your issue.”

House State Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Loertscher, R-Iona, asked how Chou recommended lawmakers do that. “Well, you’re only as good as your people,” Chou said. “We don’t have an interest on that issue, Mr. Chairman. We’ve been neutral on those gaming issues. In fact, we’re generally in support of all gaming here in Idaho. But the problems you’ve had with respect to racing has to do with racing and the people involved in racing.”