Agenda - Council - 04/26/1994 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

CASE # REVIEW PROPOSED REVISIONS TO THE LAWFUL GAMBLING ORDINANCE ! By: Jessie L. Hart, Finance Officer Background:~ For the past several months Councilmembers Beyer and Zimmerman and myself have been working on revl[sions to the section of the City Code that deals with the regulation and administration offlawful gambling in the City of Ramsey. Attached hereto is the draft ordinance for discussion purposes at tonights meeting. The objective of he revisions was to establish policies and procedures that made it easier for both the City to regul rte and the various non-profit organizations to comply with and to establish a "regular" cash fl~ w for the City. We have structured the amendments to hopefully achieve these objectives. Some of the amendments consisted of "housekeeping" type revisions such as changing "charitable" to "11 wful" and changing all references to "licenses" to "premises permits." The major changes that impact the way the City administers lawful gambling and compliance by outside organizations areras follows: 7.61.05 Conditions This secfi on originally contained item c which imposed a limit on the number of locations any one organization could operate in the City of Ramsey. This item has been eliminated, thus, wit~t City approval on premises permits, an organization which meets all other sfipulatioJ~ s in this Code section can operate unlimited sites in the City. A new item c has been added which limits the maximum number of gambling devises (ie: pull-tabs; tip-boards; or paddlewheels) at any one Iocgtion to two of any one device. 7.61.09 Use of Lawful Gambling Net Profits This secu on stipulates the amount of and basis for computing the required contribution to the City !: ased on net profits. The original percentage was 10% (maximum allowed by the Statutes) of net profits which is def'med as profits less amounts expended for allowable expenses. Organizations operating in the City were allowed to deduct taxes (combined receipts; !ederal wagering; distributors taxes; etc) in determining net profits even though they are lot defined as allowable expenses. In addition, if a net loss occurred after the deductio~ of these taxes, the net loss was allowed to be carried forward to offset future net profits in a given permit year. The prop~ sed amendments to this section are to eliminate any direct reference to a particular percentile, but rather indicate that a percentage will be established by CoUncil resolution. We havelalso changed the wording to indicate that taxes will no longer be allowed as deductioris when determining net profits, nor will any net losses (which will occur very infrequen~y under this method) be carded forward at any time. These changes a~ Presented were reviewed with the Gambling Control Board by Bill Goodrich and myself. The Board indicated that the manner in which we propose to regulate lawful gambling and collect a percent~e of net profits are acceptable methods under State Statutes.