As reported by: The Charleston Gazette
Gov. Bob Wise is willing to call a special session to legalize table games in West Virginia, but legislative leaders don't want to be dealt in.

“I just don't think there's any chance it's going to happen,” said House Speaker Bob Kiss, D-Raleigh, during Sunday interim meetings in Charleston.

And Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, D-Logan, said Wise isn't sure he has enough votes to pass a table games bill in the Senate.

Wise called a special session just three weeks ago to pass a prescription-drug resolution. He decided not to include a proposal to allow county elections to legalize table games at the state's four racetracks: Tri-State Racetrack and Gaming Center in Cross Lanes, Wheeling Downs and Mountaineer Racetrack and Gaming Resort in the Northern Panhandle, and Charles Town Races in the Eastern Panhandle.

Kiss said he believed that was the end of the table games issue until next year, but Wise said at a meeting Friday of the Charleston Rotary Club that he is considering another special session.

“I'm prepared to call a special session on table games with local option in the four counties where tracks are located,” Wise said Friday, “but I need to know that the Legislature is willing to take it up.”

Kiss said he was surprised to see table games in the news again. “I've been surprised this has been a press story,” he said. “I thought the issue was put to bed a month ago.”

Even supporters of table games had questions about a special session this month.

“There are questions to be settled about how the rules would be structured, who gets the money, how the state's share would be spent,” Delegate Joe DeLong, D-Hancock, told The Associated Press. “It would almost be a mistake to call a special session and end up with a free-for-all.”

Alex Macia, Wise's chief of staff, said Wise didn't include table games in the November special session because Wise didn't have enough support yet to get it passed. He said there might still be time to call a special session in early January, before Governor-elect Joe Manchin takes office.

“All the governor did on Friday was express his support for it,” Macia said. “If there's no support for it, or the clock runs out before support can be built, then it will be unfinished business for someone else to deal with.”

On Friday, Wise said West Virginia stands to lose up to $160 million in gambling revenue as Pennsylvania adds slot machines at its racetracks, and Maryland considers doing the same. Table games would help West Virginia compete with those new gambling venues, which do not have blackjack, poker, roulette and other such games.

Republicans are solidly against a special session, said House Minority Leader Charles Trump, R-Morgan. Another session would be a waste of taxpayer money, he said, and most Republicans in the Legislature are opposed to gambling expansion.

Legislators also might be tired after a tough election and three special sessions this year. Manchin said he is considering a special session in late January. Christmas is less than three weeks away, and legislators have families and careers at home to tend to, Kiss said.