Nevada U.S. Representative Dina Titus (Dem.) told a packed audience at the Global Gaming Expo Tuesday that she expects infrastructure and reconciliation bills to pass Congress and that both will not only help Las Vegas, specifically, but gaming and tourism in general.
Titus appeared on stage with AGA President and CEO Bill Miller, who asked her about the latest happenings in Washington, D.C., and their impact on the gaming industry.
President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion reconciliation package and $1 trillion infrastructure bill are hung up as Sen. Joe Machin of West Virginia and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema negotiate with their Democratic colleagues on the size, makeup, and taxation of the reconciliation bill. The legislation covers free community college, child care and universal pre-K, Medicare expansion, extended child tax credits, paid family and medical leave, and climate change.
“We’re having a hell of a time with the Senate getting this passed,” Titus said. “The reconciliation bill is more difficult. It now stands at $3.5 trillion, but that’s over 10 years. I’m sure that number will come down and we’ll reach a compromise.
“Physical infrastructure is very important. People have to be able to get to a location to enjoy what we have to offer. Here in Nevada, you take the I-15 to Southern California and on the weekends, there’s so much traffic, it’s like a parking lot. It needs to be widened. We need high-speed trains to connect the Southwest just like they do in the Northeast. Building the I-11 from here to Phoenix is (important). We’re the only two metropolitan areas not connected by an interstate. We have to be sure in the infrastructure bill we are moving people as well as products, because that’s how we get folks to come to our resorts and casinos.”
Titus said the reconciliation package is an investment in human infrastructure and that “gaming will prosper as our communities prosper.” It will help with workforce training by educating a workforce to deal with advancing technology used in the gaming industry.
People also need daycare, so they can return to work and feel safe with expanded healthcare, she noted.
“Both (bills) work together to bring us back and as we come back and people have a little money in their pockets and feel safe to travel, the industry will come back.”
Titus talked about how Congress last week approved a continuing resolution to avoid a federal government shutdown on Oct. 1, as well as a 30-day extension of the highway funding bill. She said she’s optimistic about the infrastructure and reconciliation bills.
Titus said it’s important for gaming and tourism to be at the negotiating table as Congress moves those bills forward. Economic development supports local tourism agencies and convention centers, which are tied to the success of gaming, she said.
“We want to be sure that funding stays in there,” Titus said. “I say that in Las Vegas, we don’t make anything except maybe dreams come true, so we have to import everything. We need that good infrastructure, whether it’s flowers or lobster or tourists themselves, to be sure that we stay not just solvent, but take advantage of some of the great technological developments that are occurring in the industry and internationally as well.”
Titus said Las Vegas has proven to be resilient, after getting hit hard by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the housing downturn and Great Recession in late 2000s, the Oct. 1, 2017, shooting at Mandalay Bay, and the COVID-19 pandemic. “Whenever the economy is hit, Las Vegas is hit harder and it takes us longer to recover, because we’re so dependent on income in other parts of the country for people to come.”
Titus talked about her push in Congress to repeal the federal excise tax, dating back to the 1950s, of 0.25% on sports betting handle within a state. “It doesn’t serve the purpose it used to. It was originally enacted and used to go after illegal folks. That money is now in the general fund. We talked to the IRS and they don’t know how much it is or where it goes. I thought, let’s give it back.”
Titus said Congress is also working to raise the tax-reporting threshold for slot jackpot winnings from the current $1,200 set in the 1970s and tying it to inflation, which would put it closer to $6,600. “It puts a burden on the industry and the player,” Titus said. “We want to get that raised. We thought about doing it through legislation, but we’re also going the regulation route.”
As for China, where the U.S. gaming industry was seeing its growth with companies investing overseas as part of an effort to bring foreign visitors to Las Vegas, Titus said that remains important and noted that international visitors stay in Las Vegas longer and spend more. Though there was great hostility between the U.S. and China under the Trump Administration, she sees Biden as opting for diplomacy and viewing China as a competitor rather than an adversary. “I think the relationship will change.”
Titus mentioned that China is cracking down on children’s use of the internet and worries about that morality carrying over into gaming restrictions. “It is something certainly we need to watch.”
