PUERTO RICO – Reps approve slot machines outside casinos
Also, Congress gets ready to fight off cock fighting ban approved by Washington
The House of Representatives approved slot operations outside of casinos as part of fiscal contributory reform to improve Puerto Rico’s tax revenue.
The bill contemplates legalizing some 45.000 slot machines in the next three years. After strong opposition by legislators and the Hotel Federation, the President of the House of Representatives, Carlos Méndez, said that the new legislative text of tax reforms will include regulation of gaming machines operating outside casinos.
Commenting on the new bill, Governor Ricardo Rosselló Nevados, said that he had not finished reading the part of the bill relating to new slots operations, but was confident that a version could be achieved so that legalization of such slots machines would not clash with the Interests of casinos and the tourist sector. He added, “My consideration has been that whatever game you have to regulate and evaluate, you have to take into account all actors involved, and the hotel industry is one of those actors.”
Congress gets ready to fight off cock fighting ban
Following a Washington Congress law to ban cock fighting in USA, the Puerto Rico legislators have taken urgent action to repeal such law, arguing that in Puerto Rico, the Cock Fighting sport is regulated by bill 98 of 2007, which decrees that the sport of cock fighting is a cultural right of Puerto Ricans, in accordance with article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations.
In is stated, furthermore, that the law empowers the Department of Recreation and Sports with all the powers and faculties necessary to promote, direct, regulate and control each and every one of the activities related to the Gallísticosport, as well as regulating certain aspects of the sport.
Jose Perez, head of the island’s Recreation and Sports Commission, has presented a resolution to the US legislature to declare inapplicable in the jurisdiction of Puerto Rico the recently approved legislation by the US Congress that bans cock fighting.
“The disappearance of this practice that is regulated by law and that provides substantial income to the Treasury, as well as affecting the jobs and income of many families, we seek that Puerto Rico is exempted from that decision,” said Perez.
According to local reports, the legislator argued that, “as far as turnover is concerned, the gallerascontribute approximately 18 million of dollars annually to the country and generate some 27,000 direct and indirect jobs.
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