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Welcome
Protect Our Neighborhoods (PON) is dedicated to ensuring that casino gaming including slot machines, video lottery/keno machines, instant racing machines, poker parlors and Native American casinos is not extended beyond the three mountain towns where it is currently allowed without a prior vote of the neighborhoods that will be impacted.
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| Registered with the Colorado Secretary of State as a non-profit corporation, PON works with like-minded organizations, including the Colorado Gaming Association, to ensure that Colorado lives up to the promise of prior voter approval as a pre-condition to any gaming expansion. |
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VIDEO-LOTTERY BILL KILLED
Proponents couldn't overcome PON's efforts and arguments, so they killed SB11-233, but the sponsor has vowed to bring the bill back next year. As long as the measure denies Colorado voters their constitutional right to vote on whether or not a casino will open in their neighborhood, PON will fight it. |
Monday, May 9, 2011
Sponsors kill video-lottery bill
Denver Business Journal |
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April 24, 2011
Pueblo Chieftain Guest Editorial
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PON Leaders Speak Out Against
Unconstitutional Gaming Expansion
By VERA ORTEGON and JUDY WEAVER The Pueblo Chieftain
We were extremely disappointed to see your recent editorial endorsing Senate Bill 233, which proposes creating two slot machine palaces, one of which might be located in Pueblo.
First, it’s important for everyone to realize that the video lottery terminals authorized in the bill will look like slot machines, play like slot machines and meet the constitutional definition of slot machines.
Pueblo voters have historically opposed bringing slot palaces to our community. As recently as 2003, nearly 75 percent of Pueblo voters opposed a ballot measure that would have brought a much smaller video lottery casino to Pueblo. The casino that was defeated in 2003 would only have had 500 machines, while the casino proposed in SB233 would have 2,500 machines. (Read it here) |
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Protect Our Neighborhoods
Press Release |
April 26, 2011 |
OPPOSITION TO SB11-233 GROWING
Sheriffs Organization Opposes VLT Slot Measure
DENVER - County Sheriffs of Colorado (CSOC), representing the state's 64 county sheriffs, voted Friday to oppose a measure that would allow at least two "super casinos" to be located anywhere in the state. CSOC joins a growing list of local governments, business, tourism and community college organizations that are working to defeat SB11-233.
The people who are pushing this bill claim that the casinos will be located at Arapahoe Park and in Pueblo, but that's not what the bill says," explained Arpahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson. "The bill would allow casinos larger than anything we currently have in Colorado to be opened anywhere in the state - suburban Colorado Springs, Grand Junction, Longmont or anywhere Mile High Racing and Entertainment chooses."
Mile High Racing and Entertainment currently operates Arapahoe Park in Aurora and, under SB11-233, would be the only entity eligible to operate the new casinos.
Robinson said that Colorado's sheriffs are concerned because the bill does not allow voters a say in whether or not a casino will be located in their neighborhoods and because it does not provide the funds to help deal with the law enforcement issues that arise from casino gaming.
In addition to County Sheriffs of Colorado, the following organizations are also opposing SB11-233:
- Action 22, in Southern Colorado
- Arapahoe County
- City of Aurora
- Colorado Advocates for Problem Gamblers, Inc.
- Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry
- Colorado Restaurant Association
- Colorado Community College System
- Colorado Gaming Association
- Council of Neighbors and Organizations, in C. Springs
- Protect Our Neighborhoods
- South Metro Chamber of Commerce
- Tour Colorado
- Tourism Industry Association of Colorado
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April 13, 2011
Denver Post Editorial:
Gambling bill ignores voters |
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| SB 233, which proposes 5,000 video lottery terminals, is an end run around the state constitution and is bad for Colorado. Read it here. |
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Protect Our Neighborhoods
Press Release |
April 12, 2011 |
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Local Elected Officials Opposing SB11-233 Gaming Expansion
Aurora and Arapahoe County Urge
Legislators to Vote 'No'
Local elected officials have pledged to fight a legislative attempt to allow two "super casinos" to be opened in Colorado, bypassing the election process mandated in the state constitution. One possible location for a new casino would be Aurora's Arapahoe Park and, with that possibility in mind, both the Aurora City Council and the Arapahoe County Board of Commissioners have decided to work against the measure.
The bill sparking all the controversy is SB11-233. Sponsored by two Adams County state senators, SB11-233 would authorize the owners of Arapahoe Park, Mile High Racing and Entertainment, to open two facilities with as many as 2,500 video lottery terminals in each facility. According to Wikipedia, video lottery terminals are similar to slot machines and opponents of SB11-233 say that they fall under the definition of 'slot machine' found in Article 18 of the Colorado Constitution.
"For all practical purposes, a video lottery terminal is a slot machine, " explained Commerce City Councilperson Kathy Teter, who heads up Protect Our Neighborhoods (PON), a coalition of local elected officials that is opposing SB11-233. "Racetrack owners tried to convince Colorado voters that video lottery terminals weren't slot machines back in 2003, but voters saw through the scam and overwhelmingly defeated that ballot measure."
"It's important for legislators to understand what SB 233 will mean to local taxpayers," said Aurora City Councilperson Robert Broom, a member of PON. "The casinos envisioned in SB-233 would be bigger than anything we currently have in Black Hawk, Central City or Cripple Creek. The facilities would put enormous pressure on our infrastructure and force local taxpayers to pick up the tab."
Arapahoe County Commissioner Rod Bockenfeld is also concerned that the new casinos would not be subject to the constitutional limits that restrict Colorado's mountain casinos. "The bill doesn't provide bet limits or even a minimum age for gamblers. With the state lottery overseeing these operations, we'd could see 18-year-olds able to legally play slots." The minimum age for playing The Colorado Lottery is 18, while gamblers in mountain casinos must be at least 21 years old.
Aurora City Council members and Arapahoe County commissioners will be contacting legislators to urge a 'no' vote and they expect to testify against SB11-233 Wednesday afternoon when it's scheduled to be heard in the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee.
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TELL LEGISLATORS THAT 'NO' MEANS 'NO'
In 2003, 81 percent of Colorado voters said 'no' to allowing up to 500 slot machines to be installed at each of Colorado's racetracks. This year, the owner of Colorado's sole horse racing track, Mile High Racing and Entertainment, is hoping legislators have short memories and will do what voters won't do, authorize two huge casinos (2, 500 slot machines each) to be put somewhere in Colorado.
SB11-233 would:
 Create two super casinos that would be larger than anything in Black Hawk, Central City or Cripple Creek.
Skip the constitutional requirement that both statewide and local voters have a say in whether or not gaming is expanded.
Require local taxpayers to pick up the tab for all the extra city services (i.e. roads, police and fire services) required by the super casinos.
Force the Colorado Lottery, rather than the Colorado Division of Gaming, to supervise the casinos, making it likely that 18-year-olds will be able to gamble and there will be no bet limits.
CONTACT THE STATE SENATORS BELOW AND TELL THEM TO LISTEN TO THEIR CONSTITUENTS, FOLLOW THE CONSTITUTION AND VOTE 'NO' ON SB11-233.
THEY'RE AT IT AGAIN
HB 1243 Would Expand Gaming Without Local Votes
Colorado’s Constitution requires a local vote before casino-style gaming can be expanded into any community beyond Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek. It’s a requirement that legislators seem to feel free to ignore, though.
This year’s attempt to end-run the constitution is HB11-1243, by State Rep. Sal Pace, D-Pueblo. It requires the Colorado Lottery to create “one or more” forms of keno games with half the proceeds going toward tourism promotion and the other half funding “a newly created program to provide one-time grants to Colorado businesses to reverse the offshoring of jobs.”
 Five previous attempts to expand gaming without voter approval have taught Protect Our Neighborhoods (PON) that when a bill authorizes the Lottery to offer keno games, it’s not talking about the traditional Lottery scratch ticket games. HB11-1243 doesn’t define ‘keno,’ but it’s certain that some form of electronic keno is what would emerge. Electronic keno machines look like slot machines and play like slot machines. Loading up convenience stores, bars and/or restaurants with electronic keno machines is the same as loading them with slot machines.
That’s why PON is opposing HB11-1243 and we need your help. The bill is scheduled for a hearing on Wednesday, February 23, at 1:30 p.m. in the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee. Urge the committee members below to preserve your right to vote on gaming expansion by voting ‘no’ on HB11-1243.
Protect Our Neighborhoods Press Release
10/14/2010 |
NEWS FROM PROTECT OUR NEIGHBORHOODS
COMMUNITY GROUP OPPOSES AMENDMENTS 60, 61 & PROP 101 |
| Protect Our Neighborhoods Announces Opposition to Amendments 60 and 61
and Proposition 101 |
| Desperate legislators might look to gaming to make up lost revenues.
Denver,CO/10-14-10
Protect Our Neighborhoods (PON), the grassroots group committed to ensuring that local voters have a say before casino gaming is expanded into their neighborhoods, has joined the coalition opposing Amendments 60 and 61 and Proposition 101 on this year's ballot. |
PON President
Kathy Teter |
According to Commerce City Councilwoman Kathy Teter, president of PON, the three measures, if adopted, will "blow a huge hole in the state and local budgets." Said Teter, "These measures require increased state spending on K-12 schools, audits and citizen lawsuits, while decreasing state revenues. We're concerned that this combination will make gambling expansion a more attractive alternative for some legislators."
PON fought attempts during the 2010 legislative session to expand gaming into Colorado neighborhoods via electronic Keno machines, arguing that voters ought to be able to decide whether or not casino-style gaming comes to their neighborhoods.
"Slot machine-style games in bars, restaurants and/or convenience stores throughout Colorado wasn't the answer to the state's budget problems in May and it won't be the answer in January, " said Teter. "We don't want legislators to get so desperate that a bad idea starts looking good."
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LEGISLATORS STILL EYEING EXPANDED GAMING
AS ANSWER TO HIGHER ED’S FUNDING WOES |
Colorado legislators are playing word games. On the television interview program Your Show, Colorado State Senate President Brandon Shaffer admitted that they will continue looking at “expanding the lottery” as a means for funding higher education and bring the issue back in 2011
What he didn't admit is that during the 2010 legislative session, “expanding the lottery” meant bringing casino-style gambling to neighborhoods throughout Colorado.
PON is committed to fighting this kind of gaming expansion, no matter what they call it. |
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