General Assembly decides to take a gamble on nearly $50 million of the budget

For those of you who have not heard, the General Assembly approved today an emergency measure to address the budget shortfall this pending fiscal year. In a questionably close, bipartisan measure, the Senate approved by a narrow vote of 10-7 (with 4 abstentions) to pass House Resolution 214, what I am calling "The Blackjack Bill," which, according to the title, is "an emergency act to close the gap between the FY2009 budget." Governor Minner is expected to sign the blackjack bill tonight.

Presuming her approval, a group of nine Delaware delegates (3 from the House, 3 from the Senate, the Governor, Lt. Gov., and the Treasurer) will take $42.5 million from the general fund to Atlantic City tomorrow morning. According to the measure, gambling will commence no later than 1:00 EST. Although the press seems silent on where they are going (which I must assume is to keep away the riff-raff), my guess is they are going to Borgata.

Most of the blackjack bill looks like it deals with how the nearly $50 million can be gambled. For example, the money will be divided evenly among the delegates and left to various games of chance. Particularly, H.R. 214 limits the contingent to roulette, craps, and blackjack. Because Atlantic City casinos will not permit the entire $42.5 million to be bet at once, some minimum maximums have been set. Interestingly, any money bet at roulette must be either bet on red or black. I just hope they don't simply place $1 million on red and another million on black in the same spin.

An amendment to the resolution originally provided for an additional $2.5 million for slots, but after a questionable and then devastating $100,000 bet on a Wheel of Fortune machine earlier this afternoon, the Senate Revenue & Taxation committee rejected any further games of chance from being played. Surprisingly, however, another amendment provides for an additional $50 million to be allocated in case the committee comes back with over $200 million.

According to one senator, he expects the majority of the money to be spent on blackjack and roulette: "Even if we lose a million on one spin of the roulette wheel, the odds are in our favor that we'll win it back on the next spin." Another representative predicted that the measure could "yield results of at least 75%, if not 150% of the money we have allocated toward this process."

Creativity of fixing the budget appears to have no bounds. I hope the group is able to double up. Not sure what is going to happen if they lose their shirts.

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