HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1962

THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2022

H.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

RELATING TO GAMBLING.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 


     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that gambling is now legal in forty-eight out of fifty states.  For the people of Hawaii, gambling is as popular as it is in the rest of the country, but it remains illegal within the State.  With no local economic impact from gambling, Hawaii is a ripe target market for legal gaming.  Hawaii residents regularly generate hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of tax revenue dollars for other states while traveling to gamble, and in return, Hawaii receives little to no benefit.

     Hawaii residents typically take a total of about five hundred thousand trips to Las Vegas and other gambling destinations each year, with many taking multiple trips per year.  In 2011, it was reported that Boyd Gaming, a Nevada-based gaming corporation, earns about $600,000,000 from Hawaii annually.  In 2021, the chief executive officer of Boyd Gaming disclosed on an investor call that the company relies heavily on gamblers coming from Hawaii.  Gaming revenues for Boyd Gaming from downtown Las Vegas, where locals often visit, declined sixty-three per cent to $257,700,000 as a result of travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.  A longtime lobbyist for gambling interests in Hawaii testified to the house standing committee on tourism in 2012 that the "prohibition of that which is legal nearly everywhere else costs Hawaii $1,000,000,000 each year in outgoing dollars and returns none."

     Even with the 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.  The Honolulu police department reported fifty-one arrests in 2020 and thirty-four arrests in 2019 for gambling offenses, and there are approximately seventy to one hundred illegal gambling rooms on Oahu alone.

     Legislation introduced in the regular session of 2021 proposed to authorize limited casino gaming in the form of a single integrated resort property on Hawaiian home lands designated for commercial use on the island of Oahu, excluding lands west of Ko Olina, to address historic funding shortfalls to the department of Hawaiian home lands.

     With over twenty-eight thousand native Hawaiians awaiting homestead leases, the department of Hawaiian home lands struggles to develop land and lots.  Current costs for infrastructure development, borne by the department, are in excess of $150,000 per lot.  To fulfill the needs of the current waitlist, the department of Hawaiian home lands requires over $6,000,000,000 for infrastructure costs alone to serve its beneficiaries.  This significant sum is separate and apart from costs for maintenance of existing lessee communities housing nearly ten thousand beneficiaries, upkeep of several utility systems, and other costs.

     Over the last decade, the legislature has funded the department of Hawaiian home lands at higher levels than in previous years, which has provided increased opportunity for the department to increase its reach.  However, even by conservative estimates, it will take the department at least another one hundred years to meet the needs of its beneficiaries at current funding levels.

     In response to the 2021 draft legislative proposal, the Hawaii state commission on the status of women released a gender impact statement in February 2021 titled, "Gambling With Women's Safety:  A Feminist Assessment of Proposed Resort-Casino," which essentially concluded that gambling is a public health issue that is tied to significant community harm and linked to sex trafficking and other gender-based violence.

     The purpose of this Act is to require the department of Hawaiian home lands to:

     (1)  Study the feasibility of and revenue generation from limited casino gaming; and

     (2)  Address the potential public health and safety concerns arising from limited casino gaming.

     SECTION 2.  (a)  The department of Hawaiian home lands shall conduct a study on the feasibility of, and revenue generation from, limited casino gaming and address the potential public health and safety concerns arising from limited casino gaming.

     (b)  The department of Hawaiian home lands shall submit a report of its findings and recommendations, including any proposed legislation, to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2023.

     SECTION 3.  There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $500,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2022-2023 for the purpose of funding a study on the feasibility of, and revenue generation from, limited casino gaming and to address the potential public health and safety concerns arising from limited casino gaming.

     The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of Hawaiian home lands for the purposes of this Act.

     SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2022.

 



 

Report Title:

Gambling; DHHL; Study; Appropriation

 

Description:

Requires the department of Hawaiian home lands to study the feasibility of, and revenue generation from, limited casino gaming and address the potential public health and safety concerns arising from limited casino gaming.  Requires a report to the legislature prior to the regular session of 2023.  Appropriates funds.  (HD1)

 

 

 

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