Puerto Rico's Treasury Department is hoping to gain as much as $400 million a year in revenue by legalizing and taxing tens of thousands of video lottery machines on the island.
Puerto Rico chief of staff Victor Suárez Meléndez said Monday there were 50,000 illegal video lottery machines on the island.
The government estimates it could bring in $100 million to $400 million in taxes on a total of $1 billion in revenue, annually, according to a professional in the governor's office.
Puerto Rico's government is struggling to create a balanced budget in the coming fiscal year, which starts on July 1. It has been seeking to cut discretionary spending by $674 million in the coming fiscal year. Legalizing and taxing the video lottery machines would reduce the amount of spending that would have to be cut.
The island's hotel casinos feature somewhat different machines that are legal. The Treasury is focused on the illegal machines spread out in a variety of retail settings.
The Treasury is amending an existing law to legalize the video lottery machines. Both chambers of the legislature would have to vote against the amendment by July 3 to stop it.
According to Lymari Rojas Ortiz, spokeswoman for Puerto Rico House of Representatives chairman of the Treasury and Budget Committee Rafael Hernández Montañez, the Treasury would use the stream of money from video lottery to gain a $125 million loan. The governor's staff member said she hadn't heard about this.
