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COIN-OP NEWS Video poker under fire in La. A Louisiana state senator, unhappy that some truck stops-or supposed truck stops-have turned into mini-casinos, wants to double the tax on the net revenue of video poker machines or possibly even repeal the law that legalized them. Truck stops are allowed to have 50 machines , whereas liquorlicensed locations can only have three. There has been an outcry over sites with as little as one gasoline pump calling themselves truck stops , an obvious attempt to circumvent the law. Sen. Joe McPherson , D-Woodworth , says he will draft legislation to raise the tax from 22 .5 percent of net revenue per machine to 45 percent. He is also considering legislation to repeal video poker. One or both bills will be filed for a fiscal legislative session that begins April 25. Though $77 million in tax revenue to the state is budgeted for this fiscal year, it's been estimated that the figure could rise as high as $85 million to $96 million . "For that (amount of tax revenue), I see the social harm (in gambling addiction) as not being worth it ," McPherson said, adding that South Dakota raised its tax to 36 percent of revenue . He called recent court rulings that limit the State Police 's ability to PLAY METER enforce video poker rules at truck stops "asinine and stupid. It's like every truck stop has turned into a mini-casino. In my district there 's a little country convenience store with a couple of gas pumps that went out of business . Now they want to reopen as a truck stop if they can get into the video poker business . And that ' s an area of the state that doesn 't even allow packaged liquor sales. " Rep. Emile "Peppi " Bruneau, R-New Orleans , the author of the video poker law, says the video poker industry in Louisiana should be prep are d to face these harsh measures if it doesn't clean up its act. "The truck stops are absolutely out of control, " he said. "The regulations , on their face , appear to begood . But the determination as to what constitutes a truck stop has obviously been lax . This has allowed places to function as casinos rather than as truck stops . We had legislation last year that dealt with gallonage requirements, but I don't know if we can get it into this session. "If raising the tax is the only way to convince people that we 're not going to have thousands of mini-casinos masquerading as truck stops in this state, then it very well may happen. Those people who make up the bulk of the video poker industry, i.e., the cocktail lounge owners , should realize that the only problems have come from places masquerading as truck stops , and that something had better be done. Otherwise they're looking at a 40 or 45 percent tax, which I think is steep, but other legislators are looking at it as a regulatory tool. I think the real regulatory tool should be gallonage , but either way I'm not happy with the way those facilities were licensed. They don 't follow the regulations or the law." Bruneau, who in the past has considered threats to repeal video poker unlikely, was not so quick to dismiss them this time . "We' ve got a situation now where the tail is wagging the dog, and if we don 't get to a point where only true truck stops that pump gas have the machines , the video poker industry is going to be in for some tough sledding," he said. "The law was passed as a regulatory measure to control the unlimited proliferation of video poker gambling devices, so if we're going to have an unlimited proliferation through truck stops, then we haven't achieved our purpose and would have to go back to the drawing board." AAMA to stage show in Hong Kong The American Amusement Machine Association CAAMAJ will hold its first-ever trade exposition in Hong Kong on June 8-9. The show, named the Asian Amusement Expo , will take place at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre in Wanchai . AAMA made the announcement after a Jan. 14 meeting of its board of directors. "The Asian Amusement Expo will connect U.S . manufacturers and distributors with a broad cross section of distribu tors , operators , and investors from the Chinese market and the South Pacific Rim countries ," said Dynamo Inc. 's Mark Struhs, 10 chairman of AAMA 's Foreign Business Development Committee. He added that the target audience is mainland China and Thailand , Indonesia , Malaysia , Singapore, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. To enhance the AAE , AAMA is negotiating continued on page 13 MARCH 1994