Fargo Democrat Says Sports Gambling Proponents Should Have to Pay to Collect Signatures

0

MINOT, N.D. — As a long-time observer, one thing that consistently surprises me, though perhaps shouldn’t any more, is how often we’re presented with evidence that some of the very people who make up the political process in North Dakota don’t really understand how it works.

Case in point: Sen. Merrill Piepkorn, an often-bewildered Democrat from Fargo, who argued against a constitutional measure legalizing sports gambling by suggesting that its proponents ought to be made to pay to collect signatures.

The bill is House Concurrent Resolution 3032, and it’s dead simple. If passed it would “authorize sports betting to be conducted in the state and licensed and regulated by the state.” Companion legislation would create in state statute the process through which sports gambling would be licensed and regulated.

“There’s one major bugaboo that I think we’re just kind of glossing over here,” Piepkorn told his fellow members of the Senate Finance and Taxation Committee yesterday, May 16. “The assumption is we’ll leave it up to the people.”

Continue reading…