ALBANY -- Lawmakers are pushing to expand Quick Draw, a video numbers game, to allow it in any bar across the state as New York continues its drive to increase gambling.
Currently, Quick Draw can be played at convenience stores, bowling alleys and restaurants. A tavern can offer the game but only if it gets about 25 percent of its revenue from food. Those restrictions would no longer apply under a bill the state Senate passed Monday.
If the Assembly follows suit, it would be a boost for the state and bar owners. An estimated $125 million is wagered annually on Quick Draw at about 3,100 outlets across New York. The state keeps roughly 32 percent. Bar owners get 6 percent of gross sales on Quick Draw.
Politicians who support the bill said tavern owners needed help after a statewide smoking ban hurt businesses, they said.
Besides, the ban on Quick Draw at bars no longer makes sense, supporters said.
''It's unrealistic to expect that's going to keep someone from spending all their money on Quick Draw,'' said the bill's chief sponsor, Sen. James Alesi, R-Perinton, Monroe County. The 25 percent threshold is arbitrary and only hurts those tavern owners who fall just short, he said.
Saland among opponents
Some opponents disagree with this reasoning.
The Senate approved the measure, 52-5. Among the opponents was Sen. Steve Saland, R-Poughkeepsie. The Assembly version of the bill, sponsored by Ivan Lafayette, D-Queens, has made it to the Ways and Means Committee, one of the last stops before a bill can go to the floor for a vote.
Once strongly opposed when it was introduced in 1995, Quick Draw has been steadily expanded. Last year, lawmakers sped up the game -- it now picks numbers every four minutes instead of five, a 20 percent increase.
When it was introduced, the law said Quick Draw machines could be on no more than eight consecutive hours. Now, Gov. George Pataki proposes to let the machines churn out numbers all day long.
The governor is also touting a plan to open eight video slot-machine parlors and add more instant lottery games. Those ideas are part of negotiations among Pataki and Senate and Assembly leaders.
One bar owner said the state should lift most of the restrictions on the game he credited with helping keep his business afloat.
''I'd have been out of business long ago if it wasn't for Quick Draw,'' said Jeff Graham, a former U.S. Senate candidate for the Independence Party and owner of the Speakeasy in Watertown.
He called the restrictions on the game ''silly'' and ''window dressing.''
The Legislature's most outspoken gambling critic called expanding Quick Draw ''the wrong thing to do.''
''It's a highly addictive, compulsive form of gambling,'' said Sen. Frank Padavan, R-Queens. ''How much you play just depends on how fast you can scratch off numbers. People, as they drink, become less circumspect about their wallets.''
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Currently, Quick Draw can be played at convenience stores, bowling alleys and restaurants. A tavern can offer the game but only if it gets about 25 percent of its revenue from food. Those restrictions would no longer apply under a bill the state Senate passed Monday.
If the Assembly follows suit, it would be a boost for the state and bar owners. An estimated $125 million is wagered annually on Quick Draw at about 3,100 outlets across New York. The state keeps roughly 32 percent. Bar owners get 6 percent of gross sales on Quick Draw.
Politicians who support the bill said tavern owners needed help after a statewide smoking ban hurt businesses, they said.
Besides, the ban on Quick Draw at bars no longer makes sense, supporters said.
''It's unrealistic to expect that's going to keep someone from spending all their money on Quick Draw,'' said the bill's chief sponsor, Sen. James Alesi, R-Perinton, Monroe County. The 25 percent threshold is arbitrary and only hurts those tavern owners who fall just short, he said.
Saland among opponents
Some opponents disagree with this reasoning.
The Senate approved the measure, 52-5. Among the opponents was Sen. Steve Saland, R-Poughkeepsie. The Assembly version of the bill, sponsored by Ivan Lafayette, D-Queens, has made it to the Ways and Means Committee, one of the last stops before a bill can go to the floor for a vote.
Once strongly opposed when it was introduced in 1995, Quick Draw has been steadily expanded. Last year, lawmakers sped up the game -- it now picks numbers every four minutes instead of five, a 20 percent increase.
When it was introduced, the law said Quick Draw machines could be on no more than eight consecutive hours. Now, Gov. George Pataki proposes to let the machines churn out numbers all day long.
The governor is also touting a plan to open eight video slot-machine parlors and add more instant lottery games. Those ideas are part of negotiations among Pataki and Senate and Assembly leaders.
One bar owner said the state should lift most of the restrictions on the game he credited with helping keep his business afloat.
''I'd have been out of business long ago if it wasn't for Quick Draw,'' said Jeff Graham, a former U.S. Senate candidate for the Independence Party and owner of the Speakeasy in Watertown.
He called the restrictions on the game ''silly'' and ''window dressing.''
The Legislature's most outspoken gambling critic called expanding Quick Draw ''the wrong thing to do.''
''It's a highly addictive, compulsive form of gambling,'' said Sen. Frank Padavan, R-Queens. ''How much you play just depends on how fast you can scratch off numbers. People, as they drink, become less circumspect about their wallets.''
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