Puerto Rico Adjusts Gaming Law
Author:
Jacob McKenzie
Puerto Rico’s Senate has approved a new project that will amend its existing Gaming Machines Law. The project, labeled 1593, has a specific purpose: to provide retirement payouts for members of the Puerto Rico Police. The payment is planned to be at least half of their existing pensions. Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives looked at the project in March 2023 and gave their initial approval.
Puerto Rico’s Senate has approved another law connected to allocating gaming revenue to police retirement.
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Multiple changes to affect Puerto Rico Police Retirement
The project to amend gaming laws was first presented by representative José Rivera Madera on January 12, 2023. Though it had its own title, Project 1593, it actually was created just to amend a specific part of the already existing gaming law in Puerto Rico.
The law is known as the Gaming Machines Law and the part to be amended is Section 29 of Law 11 of 1933. The amendment would make it possible for the state to obtain funds from gaming collections and funnel those funds into retirement support for police officers, supplementing their pensions. It would also benefit officers affected by 2013’s Law 3.
The scheme would work by giving a certain part of gaming revenue to retired agents. The part of revenue that would be allocated for this comes from license payments by operators in Puerto Rico. Operators must pay these contributions in order to have the right to make money from any type of gaming on the island. It can also add up to a fair sum of money.
Representatives Rivera Madera and José González wrote a statement for the project, in which they stated the importance of allocating funds to former police. They described the police force as people who have dedicated their lives protecting those in Puerto Rico, and that fair compensation is a necessary duty of the legislature.
When it was first presented in January, Puerto Rico’s Tourism and Cooperatives Commission gave a positive report based on the idea. Commission chair Rivera Madera also created his own analysis of the project which he submitted as a part of the presentation as well before it was voted on.
He explained that other parts of the government that benefit from gaming taxation would not be affected by this change; in other words, they would not see their contributions diminish. That is because the licensing income would be put into a trust just for the purpose of police officer pensions.
After Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives approved Project 1593, it moved to the responsibility of the Senate, where it was recently accepted. Now it must be signed by Puerto Rico’s governor, Pedro Pierluisi.
A separate law — Law 104 in 2022 — also connects to this project. It determined that $75 USD of each license payment would be allocated toward the Puerto Rico police retirement fund. Furthermore, license costs will also increase soon to $1500 USD each. When that occurs, $450 USD will go into the retirement fund.
The changes do not stop there. Part of slot machine income in Puerto Rico will also be allocated toward the retirement fund for police officers. This will be made up of 60% of the tax from income from earnings, which are collected and sent biweekly to Puerto Rico’s Gaming Commission.
Also, of the income collected by the slot machines, and which is sent biweekly to the Gaming Commission, 60 percent will be allocated monthly to the trust created by law to improve the compensation of the Police Retirement from Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico has had a busy year in terms of tax collection and gaming revenue. It also recently reported increased earnings from sports betting, which was only available at brick-and-mortar locations like casinos up until a recent law change allowing online betting.
