SENATE STATE GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 761

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: JUNE 6, 1996

      The Senate State Government Committee reports favorably Senate, No. 761.

      The purpose of this bill is to make certain changes in the fees charged to organizations that conduct bingo and raffles, and to change the depository for those and other fees payable to the Legalized Games of Chance Control Commission.

      Specifically, the bill:

      1) removes from the Control Commission the authority to establish by regulation the cost of registration fees for bingo and raffle licensees and provides instead that the fee shall be $50 for a five-year period beginning with the year the fee is paid initially;

      2) provides that no per-occasion fees may be prescribed by regulation by the commission for each bingo game or raffle conducted by a licensee; and

      3) abolishes the Legalized Games of Chance Control Commission Fund, established pursuant to P.L.1994, c.63, and provides that all moneys collected by the Control Commission shall be deposited in the General Fund. All moneys in the Legalized Games of Chance Control Commission on the effective date of the bill would be transferred to the General Fund as soon as practicable after that date.