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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

House rejects anti-touch tabs bill, 18-52

The House has voted overwhelmingly against HB 28 to ban the Idaho Lottery’s electronic touch-tab machines, killing it on an 18-52 vote. Rep. Steven Harris, R-Meridian, the bill’s sponsor, told the House that on a recent visit to a local tavern with other lawmakers, he observed a man continuously playing an electronic touch-tab machine. “He was gambling,” Harris said. “He had lost the innocence of the lottery.”

Harris argued that while the machines are legal, the Legislature still should ban them. “The Legislature has the ability at any time to change these statutes as it sees fit,” he said. “Who draws the line? Well, we do. … That’s our job. That’s what we do every day here, draw lines.”

Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, said, “This bill is not about gambling. This is about drawing the line because of the speed of a machine.” But he said the lottery’s own statistics show the machines don’t see heavy, rapid betting. “Thinking about the average Joe, we start saying we’re elitists, we’re the ones that know better,” he said. “We’re the ones that should protect the public from themselves. The idea that because we’re smarter, we’ve been elected … smacks of elitism.” Barbieri said he favors instead “allowing the individual to make choices for themselves.”

Rep. Jeff Thompson, R-Idaho Falls, read from a 2009 Idaho Attorney General’s opinion that concluded the electronic touch-tab vending machines are not slot machines. “I don’t believe we’re here to get into individuals’ personal lives. I don’t think that we’re here to be, if I may, a nanny state,” he said. “I believe that we’re here to set people free, let them live their lives, and have as little government as we possibly can.”

Harris, in his closing debate, countered, “I’m not trying to argue that this is a slot machine.” Instead, he said, “We’re … in a position to define where an appropriate line might be drawn … between the ‘Hogs and Kisses’ scratch ticket and the casino floor. … Someone gets to draw the line, and that’s us.”

The vote on the bill was so overwhelmingly negative that Harris was awarded the “crow,” a decorated statue of a crow that’s passed on whenever a representative gets 18 or fewer votes in the 70-member House.

In the 18-52 vote, the only “yes” votes came from Reps. Armstrong, Burtenshaw, Crane, Dayley, DeMordaunt, Hanks, Harris, Horman, Loertscher, Mendive, Monks, Nate, Palmer, Scott, Shepherd, Trujillo, VanderWoude, and Zito. All other representatives voted “no.”



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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