Brief(1)
The bill would change the statutory definition of types of lottery machines that are prohibited for use by the Kansas Lottery and amend the bingo laws to also prohibit the use of those machines in bingo games. The bill also would amend the Lottery Act in regard to sale of Lottery tickets to minors.
"Lottery machines" would be defined to be devices that allow a player to insert any form of consideration and which deliver, as a result of either skill or chance, a prize or evidence of a prize. The use of lottery machines would be prohibited under both the Lottery Act and the bingo statutes.
Two types of lottery machines would mentioned in the statutory definition, but the prohibition would extend to any device described in the definition of "lottery machine." The bill would specifically prohibit "interactive lottery machines" and "noninteractive lottery machines." Interactive lottery machines would be distinguished by the involvement of some element of player skill in the determination of the award of the prize. Examples of games that might be played on those machines would be poker and blackjack. A noninteractive machine would award prizes based only on chance. Examples of noninteractive machines include slot machines and dispensers of various kinds of game tickets.
The bill also would amend the Lottery Act to specifically state that neither the Governor nor the Lieutenant Governor could approve games on lottery machines.
Finally, the bill also would repeal a provision of the Lottery Act that requires a prosecutor to prove that a person who sold a lottery ticket to a minor knew that the purchaser was a minor. In addition, the bill would provide a defense to a prosecution for selling a lottery ticket to a minor. That defense could be invoked if the defendant had reasonable cause to believe the person buying the ticket was 18 or older, and the purchaser showed the lottery retailer an apparently official photo identification stating that the purchaser was 18 or older.
Background
Introduction of the bill was requested by Stand Up For Kansas. A representative of the organization spoke in favor of the bill at a hearing held by the House Committee on Federal and State Affairs. The Executive Director of the Kansas Lottery informed the Committee that the Lottery currently uses 50 ticket dispensers that would be outlawed by the bill. The Director expressed concern about the bill's impact on the Lottery.
The Division of the Budget's fiscal note on the introduced version of the bill states that the Lottery expects enactment of the bill to reduce ticket sales in FY 1999. However, the Lottery was not able to provide the Division with a precise estimate of the impact of outlawing the 50 machines currently in use. The fiscal note does not address amendments to the bill made subsequent to introduction.
1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/fulltext-bill.html.