| National update |
State Lottery may
cut commissions
for bars, taverns
BY CHARLES E. BEGGS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALEM — State Lottery Director
Dale Penn on Tuesday recommend
ed that bar and tavern commissions
on new slot-machine-style video
games be about one-half the average
rate now paid on video poker.
Lottery retailers get an average
of 28.8 percent of net revenue from
video poker machines. Penn pro
posed that retailers get 15 percent
from the slot-type games that will
be added to the machines in a
few months.
The restaurant industry immedi
ately denounced the proposal.
“We’re very disappointed,” said
Mike McCallum, president of the
Oregon Restaurant Association.
McCallum said the sharply re
duced rate wouldn’t be an incentive
for bar and tavern operators to wel
come the slot games.
“If they have a choice and
don’t take them, there’s no way the
state’s revenue projection can
be met,” he said.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski has directed
the commission to add the so-called
line games to video machines to
raise an additional $60 million a
year to finance the state police.
Net revenue is money played on
the video terminals minus prizes
paid out.
A final rate decision is up to the
state Lottery Commission. Penn said
he expects the panel may take that
action in April, following a hearing
on his recommendation set for
March 25 in Salem.
Penn said the lower commission
for the slot-style games is justified
because adding the games “will not
significantly increase costs to retail
ers” and will boost sales from
increased play.
“Our goal ultimately is to increase
sales, and when we look at what has
occurred in other markets and what
games are most popular, line games
are that popular choice,” he said.
Plans are to have new games op
erating by July.
Lottery retailers for years have
asked the state to add the line
games to the poker machines
on grounds that they face competi
tion from Indian casinos in which
the vast majority of machines offer
slot games.
But McCallum said if most players
eventually prefer the lottery’s
slot games, as some analysts
project, Penn’s plan would cut retail
ers’ overall commissions nearly
in half.
There are 10,300 of the lottery’s
video poker machines in 2,000 es
tablishments around the state.
Video poker produces more than
80 percent of the almost $400 mil
lion a year in lottery profits that the
state uses for education, economic
development and other programs.
Penn said installing line games is
mostly a matter of putting new soft
ware and computer chips into the
poker machines.
Penn had earlier proposed shav
ing commissions for all video games
to an average of 25.6 percent —
which retailers also opposed — be
cause the lottery’s existing electronic
systems can’t separate commission
rates by games.
Penn said Tuesday that by shifting
money in the budget, changes can
be expedited so the system can cal
culate separate commissions for
each game.
Penn said his proposal was influ
enced by studies showing that estab
lishments would still profit if com
missions on all games were cut to
15 percent.
But he said paring all commis
sions to 15 percent “would not be vi
able” because he believes a signifi
cant number of bars and taverns
would drop the games.
“This looks like a very thoughtful
and reasonable proposal that brings
the lottery more in line with its legal
mandate to maximize revenue
for public benefits,” said Jonah
Edelman of Portland, executive
director of Stand for Children,
which wants retailer commissions
cut so more money would be
available for schools.
New board will check on risks
of medications on the market
BY RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The gov
ernment is setting up a special
monitoring board to keep checking
on medicines once they’re on
the market, responding to com
plaints that officials reacted
too slowly to reports linking pre
scription painkillers to heart attack
and stroke.
Plans for the board were an
nounced TXiesday on the eve of a
three-day scientific meeting on the
safety of painkillers such as Vioxx
and Celebrex, drugs that blos
somed into a $5 billion-a-year busi
ness before risks from potential
side effects came to light.
Meanwhile, a medical journal
questioned whether continued use
of such products was justified.
Vioxx was pulled from the
market in September after a
study showed an increase in heart
attacks and strokes among people
using it. Other studies have also
raised questions of heart problems
with similar drugs Celebrex
and Bextra.
“Because there are well-estab
lished options for treatment of all
the approved indications for these
drugs, it is reasonable to ask
whether the use of the drugs can
now be justified,” Dr. Jeffrey M.
Drazen, editor of the New England
Journal of Medicine, wrote in an
editorial published online.
That is the question facing
the Food and Drug Administra
tion’s arthritis and drug safety
and risk management advisory
committees at their meeting
beginning Wednesday.
The new drug safety board was
announced by Health and Human
Services Secretary Mike Leavitt,
who said it has become clear that
people want more oversight and
openness from the FDA.
“They want to know what we
know, what we do with informa
tion and why we do it,” Leavitt
said, promising to create “a
new culture of openness and
enhanced independence.”
The board will recommend
which information and updates
to put on the government’s Drug
Watch, resolve disputes over
drug safety issues and oversee
the development of a drug safety
policy. It will include FDA employ
ees and medical experts from other
government agencies and will
consult with outside medical
experts as well as consumer and
patient groups.
Washington among 35 states
vying for possible Airbus plant
BY MATTHEW DALY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Representatives
from Washington state were among
officials from 35 states in attendance
Hiesday as the parent company of
Boeing rival Airbus made a pitch for
a $600 million aircraft assembly plant
to be built in the United States.
Representatives from Grant Coun
ty, Wash., the city of Spokane and
the state Department of Community,
TYade and Economic Development
attended the informational session
hosted by the European Aeronautic
Defence and Space Co.
France-based EADS, the majority
owner of Airbus, has said it plans to
open a U.S. manufacturing site with
in a year with hopes of building a re
fueling tanker to compete with the
Boeing 767.
About 135 people attended the
session at a Capitol Hill hotel, EADS
officials said.
“We felt we got a very, very posi
tive response,” said Ralph Crosby,
head of EADS North America, who
led the presentation.
Crosby called the meeting the first
step in a process that should result in
selection of a U.S. site within a year.
States interested in bidding on the
Airbus plant were given a March 31
deadline to submit a general plan for
where the plant would be located
and what advantages the site would
offer, Crosby said.
“We wanted to give everybody an
opportunity to participate, and we
got a lot of participants,” he said.
In addition to Washington state,
other states represented at Tuesday’s
meeting included Arizona, Califor
nia, Florida, Kansas, Illinois, Mis
souri, Pennsylvania and Texas, EADS
officials said. All nine states have
Boeing operations.
Other states interested in the
Airbus plant include North Caroli
na, Mississippi, Oklahoma and
New Mexico.
EADS has asked states to select no
more than three sites that would be
capable of providing the work force,
transportation options and resources
needed for a site to assemble the
tanker, which would be based on the
Airbus A330 passenger jet. Washing
ton is offering Grant County and
Spokane. The city of Everett, home to
a massive Boeing plant, said last
week it wasn’t interested.
The plant, if built, could employ
up to 1,100 people to manufacture
billions of dollars worth of midair re
fueling tankers for the Air Force.
Chicago-based Boeing is also inter
ested in building the tankers, and the
competition between the companies
is expected to be fierce.
Under Boeing’s plan, the planes
would be built in Everett and modi
fied for military use in Wichita, Kan.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and
other Washington lawmakers have
denounced the EADS plan as a
“slick campaign” to drum up politi
cal support for its effort to land the
tanker contract.
“It’s a ploy to capture American tax
dollars for a French company and
French jobs,” said Alex Glass, a
spokeswoman for Murray. “We think
the tankers are going to be built in the
United States and be built by Boeing.”
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