At their last meeting, commissioners revived an issue they thought they settled in 2011 — this time issuing a three-month ban on new business license applications for bars that feature slot machine gaming.
The move will buy county staff time to sort out regulations for taverns with gaming licenses that allow them to have up to 15 slot machines. As part of regulations adopted in 2011 that required food and liquor service, gaming was meant to be just an “incidental” part of a tavern's revenue.
Commissioners are concerned that dozens of slot parlors licensed as taverns that have sprung up in recent years are violating the spirit of the law by bringing in a majority of their revenue through gaming.