Lake Bowl requests lowering of gambling tax

MOSES LAKE — The leadership team at Moses Lake’s sole casino is asking the city council to consider lowering the city’s gambling tax for card rooms.

Lake Bowl, Inc., CEO B.J. Garbe came before the city council Tuesday night with a proposal to incrementally lower the city’s gambling tax for card rooms from 10 percent to 5 percent over four years. Lake Bowl’s Papa’s Sports Lounge and Casino has the only card room in the city.

“The reason that we are asking for this proposal is, our industry is dying. It really is. With a combination of tribal competition and legislation, we are in a world of hurt and we are hoping for some relief from you guys so that we are able to continue to support our employees.”

Garbe said on average the gambling tax as it stands now costs Lake Bowl around $220,000 annually, a number he says is putting the business in a tight spot financially. Garbe explained the one thing he cannot do is raise prices in the casino and because of that the business has been incurring the extra cost of the gambling tax over the last 20 years.

“There has been several other municipalities that have lowered their gambling taxes. Spokane, for example, was at 15 percent at one point. They are at 2 percent today. And that is all for relief, because we keep getting beaten, beaten, beaten by legislation and competition to where our industry is dying.”

The State of Washington does not collect a gambling tax, but the Revised Code of Washington allows cities, counties or towns to collect tax on gambling receipts. The maximum tax that can be placed on gambling activities are as follows: up to 5 percent of net receipts for bingo, up to 5 percent of net receipts for raffles, up to 2 percent of net receipts for amusement games, up to 5 percent of gross receipts, or up to 10 percent of net receipts for punchboard/pulltabs, and up to 20 percent of gross receipts for card rooms.

City Manager John Williams explained the revenue generated from the tax goes specifically to public safety. That fact was a struggling point for councilmember Ryann Leonard, who said she wants to support local businesses who give a lot back to the community, like Lake Bowl, but she also wants to remain true to the city’s responsibility to its citizens.

“If it’s between a card room and hiring another law enforcement officer, that may be difficult for me to make that choice if we go with the enforcement like it says in the statute,” Leonard remarked.

Councilmember Don Myers was in full support of the lowering of the tax, stating the situation is a unique one in that there are no other card rooms or casinos in Moses Lake the tax has an impact on.

"I believe that they have provided a lot to our community. So I think we can cut them a break. It is just the one business that is affected by this tax,” Myers remarked. “We are not saying that we are not going to allow any other ones in if somebody decides they want to. So really we are not just going for one business with this decrease.”

The council passed a motion to have city staff bring back a proposal based on Garbe’s tiered approach to decrease the gambling tax over four years.

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.