KENTUCKY HOUSE REVERSES COURSE, PASSES BILL TO BAN ‘GRAY GAMES’

Five days after it was blocked on the House floor by a rarely used procedural maneuver, a heavily lobbied bill to ban so-called “gray machines” in Kentucky was resurrected Wednesday and voted through the chamber.

House Bill 594, which would ban the games with cash payouts that have proliferated in stores across Kentucky in recent years, was blocked last Friday when a motion to table the bill passed by a narrow margin, splitting members of the Republican supermajority.

The bill remained tabled until Republican House Speaker David Osborne walked to the floor Wednesday to bring a motion to pull the bill from the table, receiving 66 yes votes from Republicans to do so.

After very little discussion on the House floor, HB 594 was then cleared for passage by a 64-32 vote, with 53 Republicans voting yes and 25 of the caucus voting no.

Rep. Killian Timoney, R-Lexington, the lead sponsor of the bill, told The Courier Journal the about-face in the chamber came after “a lot of discussions” among members of the GOP caucus, including one that lasted nearly 30 minutes in their meeting Tuesday evening.

Source: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2023/03/08/kentucky-house-passes-bill-to-ban-gray-gambling-machines/69986694007/