Lawmakers drop casino-ATM language from bill
Hours after an appeal for a timeout from the next attorney general, the Massachusetts Legislature retreated from its late-session push for broader access to cash machines at casinos.
The House and Senate on Wednesday agreed to remove ATM measures from a banking laws reform bill before sending that bill to Gov. Deval Patrick's desk.
The decision to leave in place the current ban on ATMs from the premises of gambling facilities will excite anti-casino advocates who blasted the proposed changes, but will leave in place confusion over how a 33-year-old banking law applies to the new world of casinos in Massachusetts.
Senate leaders say under existing law federally chartered banks could be free to strike deals with casino operators such as MGM and Wynn Resorts to locate ATM machines anywhere within a casino resort, while state-chartered banks regulated by the Division of Banks would be subject to the ban.
Sen. Anthony Petruccelli, an East Boston Democrat, and Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr both said after Wednesday's session that they were unaware of any agreement to revisit the issue of ATMs in casinos in the next session, but Tarr said it would be hard to ignore.
"I think we will have to come back to it. The current inequities for different banks are untenable," Tarr said.
Rep. Paul Donato, a Medford Democrat who presided over Wednesday's House session, acknowledged the confusion that still exists.
"Now, in most of the casinos that I've visited, one or two, they're always in the lobbies and never inside the actual casino," Donato said of ATMs. "That was the whole discussion relative to this bill, where the anti-casino people were saying don't put ATMs in casinos. Now the question becomes, do the federal chartered banks still have the right to put them into casinos and only the state banks not allowed? That's the question. Or is it that state law overrides the federal to say that we don't allow ATMs in the casino at all?"
Anti-casino advocates argue the Division of Banks is within its rights to impose stricter rules on federally-chartered banks than the federal government.
After the House in July passed a banking bill that would have lifted the prohibition on casino ATMs altogether, the Senate on Monday approved a Sen. Stephen Brewer amendment to put in place a narrower restriction on ATMs in gaming areas at casinos and give regulatory control to the Gaming Commission. The House refused to agree to the Senate plan Wednesday and the bill was moved to Patrick's desk without any ATM-casino language.
Senate Majority Leader Stanley Rosenberg told the News Service the amendment would put state and federally chartered banks on equal footing while keeping ATMs off the gaming floor. He said he called Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby on Monday to tell him he would prefer to see ATMs placed "as far away as possible" from the gaming floor.
While the state's banking laws prohibit electronic banking at gaming facilities, the 2011 expanded gambling law references ATMs and how they should be prohibited from accepting electronic welfare benefit cards. The mention of ATMs has been interpreted by some lawyers to be an implicit authorization to locate ATMs within casinos.
The Gaming Commission has requested an interpretation from the Division of Banks on ATMs at casinos, and in the meantime adopted a temporary policy restricting their placement to at least 15 feet from the gaming floor of a casino or slot parlor.
With casinos not due to open for at least a couple years, Attorney General-elect Maura Healey urged restraint.
"Efforts to lift the ban on casino floor ATMs should to be carefully considered and openly debated, not rushed through in the waning days of the legislative session," Healey said in a statement released as the House and Senate were preparing to meet. "The impact on consumers needs to be considered up front, not punted until after the restrictions are lifted. I urge the Legislature and Gaming Commission to tread carefully and promise a full, public hearing in the next session."
Petruccelli said the broader bill sent to Patrick on Wednesday provides an update to 1981 banking laws to accommodate for new technologies, and to address duplicative federal banking processes and changes made to the banking industry by the federal Dodd-Frank Act.
Both branches will reconvene Monday at 11 a.m. to keep advancing bills, aware that any legislation not signed by Patrick before he leaves office Wednesday will be pocket-vetoed.
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