COLLEGE CAMPUSES
House Bill 5249
Sponsor: Rep. Samuel Thomas III
Committee: Gaming and Casino Oversight
Complete to 10-19-00
A SUMMARY OF HOUSE BILL 5249 AS INTRODUCED 2-1-00
The Michigan Penal Code contains a prohibition (with a few exceptions) against maintaining a gambling house or maintaining a gaming room or table, game of skill or chance, or game that combines skill and chance. House Bill 5249 would amend the code to allow a college or university to possess or use gaming equipment and supplies for educational purposes. An "educational purpose" would not include a wager for money, credit, or any other representative of value. In addition, federal law regulates the interstate shipping of gambling devices (15 U.S.C. 1171 to 1178). However, the federal statute allows a state to opt out of the federal oversight. The bill would specify that the state of Michigan declared itself to be exempt from those particular provisions of federal law. Therefore, gambling devices that have been properly registered, recorded, and labeled under the U.S. Code requirements, including slot machines, that are shipped to colleges and universities within the state would be considered legal shipments. (However, it is not clear that the bill's "opt-out" provision would be limited to shipments of gambling apparatus and supplies to colleges and universities; the "opt-out" appears to apply to all cases of shipments of such equipment.)
Further, the Michigan Penal Code allows, with some conditions, the manufacture of gaming or gambling apparatus (and thus the possession of such supplies by a manufacturer). The bill would include the subsidiary of a manufacturer of gambling apparatus under this exception to the code's ban.
MCL 750.302 and 750.303
Analyst: S. Stutzky