AlaskaSB 17034th Legislature (2025-2026)Senate

GAMING; ELECTRONIC PULL-TABS

Sponsored By: Jesse Bjorkman (Republican)

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

29 provisions identified: 7 benefits, 8 costs, 14 mixed.

Bingo players get progressive prize options

State rules must allow operators to award up to $10,000 per bingo session and a $2,500 top prize per game. Progressive prizes are allowed and do not count toward those limits. When nobody wins under the posted progressive winning rule, part of gross receipts carries over. The rest goes to the first valid bingo winner or winners as more numbers are called. A valid progressive win requires payment of the entire progressive prize pool.

Operator estates can briefly continue gaming

When an individual licensed gaming operator dies, the estate can name a temporary person to continue authorized gaming. This permission lasts 120 days after the death. It does not permanently transfer the license.

Pull-tab players get fixed, traceable games

Each pull-tab series must have a serial number and state-approved sealing or encryption. Distribution is limited to authorized municipalities, qualified organizations, operators, licensed distributors, and vendors allowed by law. Electronic series have at most 15,000 tickets, fixed winning and nonwinning tickets, preset prizes, and a unique serial number never regenerated. Extended play cannot require extra payment, and paper invoices must show the cost per ticket. Paper series must stay on sale until sold out, unless defective; early defect withdrawals require notice within the state's deadline.

Newer school booster clubs can qualify

Beginning January 1, 2027, school booster clubs less than three years old can qualify to run charitable gaming. Their main purpose must be supporting a school extracurricular or co-curricular activity. That activity must have existed continuously for at least three years before the club applies.

Electronic pull-tabs gain legal recognition

Beginning January 1, 2027, games using electronic card images count as pull-tab games under Alaska law. Electronic pull-tabs are exempt from the rule requiring games to have existed in Alaska before January 1, 1959. This removes that barrier to gaming permits.

Gaming businesses get suspension and revocation notices

When a gaming permit, license, or vendor registration is suspended or revoked, the Department of Revenue must notify affected operators or supplying distributors. If a distributor loses its authorization, its supplying manufacturer must also receive notice. Notices go by email and through the state service website.

Gaming groups get larger annual prize limits

Municipalities and qualified organizations can award up to $2 million annually for authorized games other than bingo and electronic pull-tabs. The former $500,000 annual cap for organizations using an operator no longer applies. Multiple-beneficiary permits allow $2 million annually multiplied by the number of permit holders. These are total prize ceilings, not promised winnings.

Electronic pull-tab players face payout ceiling

Electronic pull-tabs cannot have an ideal payout rate above 90%. This caps the game's planned payout rate, not the amount any one player wins.

Pull-tab venues and insiders face limits

Owners and employees of paper pull-tab establishments cannot play paper pull-tabs at those establishments. People with access to electronic deck-status reports cannot play electronic pull-tabs at that location. Vendor locations may sell only paper pull-tabs and electronic pull-tabs played on portable tablets.

Prize winners and organizations face paperwork rules

Winners must sign and return receipts for paper prizes of $50 or more and electronic prizes of $100 or more. Electronic receipts must use the department's approved form. Permit holders must keep records for two years if prior-year receipts exceeded $100,000 or they must report under AS 05.15.080(a), including joint multiple-beneficiary permit holders. Paper records cover prizes of $50 or more, each series' first and last distribution days, serial number, and distributor. Electronic records cover prizes that both exceed $100 and exceed 100 times the ticket price.

Gaming businesses face stronger state oversight

Alaska's Department of Revenue can investigate licensed and unlicensed gaming and impose civil penalties. It can inspect specified business records, including electronic system manufacturers' and distributors' records, and subpoena witnesses and documents. For conviction-based disqualification, a business counts as convicted when its owner or manager, or an affiliated company's owner or manager, is convicted. This can support suspension or revocation of its gaming authorization. The state cannot register disqualified vendors, and vendors cannot accept gifts from manufacturers or specified related people and companies.

Gaming locations face supervision and tablet limits

Operators or permit holders must name someone who stays on site and directly oversees pull-tab activity or the electronic system. The state limits tablets in play to the greater of 10 tablets or one per six permitted occupants. The occupancy-based limit cannot exceed 25 tablets.

Electronic gaming businesses need separate approvals

Operators, manufacturers, and distributors need separate state endorsements for electronic pull-tabs. Operators must file all required reports and have no license revocation in the previous five years. Manufacturers must pay for testing and certification by a state-approved independent lab before distributing systems. Distributors cannot be operators or otherwise conduct authorized gaming for a municipality or qualified organization. Manufacturers and their parent, sister, or subsidiary companies cannot receive an electronic distributor endorsement.

Manufacturers cannot fund venues or gifts

Pull-tab manufacturers cannot modify buildings or pay others to modify them for gaming systems. They also cannot do or fund electrical work or provide utility connections. Manufacturers and specified related people and companies cannot give or accept things of value involving vendors, operators, permit holders, and qualified organizations. Operators, permit holders, and qualified organizations also cannot accept gifts from those manufacturer-related parties.

Manufacturers face ownership and sales restrictions

Manufacturers cannot supply electronic pull-tabs to distributors owned by the manufacturer or specified related people or companies. Manufacturers cannot obtain, use, share, or sell point-of-sale data from paper tickets or bingo. Manufacturers and distributors cannot tie a paper game's price or availability to an electronic game, or the reverse.

Electronic players get safeguards, fewer payment options

Electronic pull-tab systems accept paper U.S. currency and debit payments, but not credit cards or payments for nongaming goods or services. Systems must show results, prizes, and ticket numbers or series. Automatic game closing is allowed only when the game information card states when it closes. Play uses tablets with screens no larger than 13 inches in either dimension, without external monitors or input devices. Slot-like spinning reels and anything of value dispensed by the system are prohibited.

Gaming applicants notify towns; licenses go online

Gaming applicants must notify the nearest city or borough when filing for a permit or license. Local protests can address only missing legal qualifications and are recommendations, not final decisions. Permit holders moving activities within their permitted area must notify the state within 10 days; the state then notifies local government. Operators can replace displayed license and permit copies with a sign directing players to that information online. A sign naming the authorizing permit holder must remain clearly visible.

Gaming buyers get fairer, stricter contracts

Manufacturers must offer every distributor the same paper pull-tab prices and quantity requirements. Distributors must send covered contracts to the department within seven days after signing. Distributor contracts with permit holders must let either party end the deal without penalty on 30 days' notice. Those contracts cannot include incentives, signing bonuses, or penalties based on contract length.

Gaming contracts allow pooling, require approval

Contracts can let operators or vendors pool permit holders and divide gaming income and payouts by percentage. Operator contracts can set those shares at the end of each month. Operators must submit their contracts electronically for state approval before gaming starts. Contract changes also need approval before taking effect.

Gaming groups get limited online options

Permit holders, operators, and multiple-beneficiary permit holders can use the Internet for raffles, lotteries, dog mushers' contests, and derbies. They can also use it for classic games defined in Alaska gaming law. Winning tickets for these activities can be drawn online or through other electronic or digital means. Broadcasting cannot be used to conduct charitable gaming.

Gaming groups get minimum proceeds shares

Operators must pay each authorizing permit holder at least 30% of adjusted gaming income from pull-tabs annually, or 10% from other games. The same minimums apply to payments to holders of multiple-beneficiary permits. The state must revoke the operator license or multiple-beneficiary permit when payments fall short. Adjusted gaming income subtracts prizes, tax collected under AS 05.15.184, and state, federal, and municipal income taxes paid or owed. Operators can pay net proceeds by check or electronic transfer; this does not change personal income-tax rules.

Gaming suppliers face security and registration rules

Electronic play devices must belong to an electronic pull-tab system and cannot be used for personal communication. Connections must use specified encryption standards or other nationally recognized security methods prescribed by the Department of Revenue. Manufacturers must keep current operating-system software agreements and make them available to the department. The department provides numbered stamps, and distributors must register every gaming tablet and attach a stamp to each.

Higher door prizes, electronic prize caps

Door-prize ceilings rise from $20,000 to $40,000 monthly and from $240,000 to $480,000 yearly. These ceilings apply per permit and to each facility where an operator acts for permit holders. Electronic pull-tab prizes are capped at $4 million yearly per municipality or qualified organization; multiple-beneficiary permits multiply that cap by the number of permit holders. Beginning in 2030, the Department of Revenue can raise general gaming and electronic prize limits by regulation once every five years. Increases are not automatic and are limited to 10%, rounded up to the nearest $10,000.

Late vendor payments trigger gaming shutdowns

Vendors must cover cash shortages without deducting them from receipts minus prize payouts. By the 15th, they must pay for prior-month sales to the permit holder or its distributor by check or electronic transfer naming the payee. Distributors must disable electronic games when payment is late and keep them disabled until payment is made. At 60 or more days overdue, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board can suspend the vendor's license or permit.

Pull-tab groups keep shares; businesses face caps

Paper pull-tab vendor contracts must give the permit holder at least 70% of the game's ideal net proceeds. Only the permit holder's member in charge or alternate may directly supply paper series to registered vendors. Electronic pull-tab vendor pay cannot exceed 25% of gross receipts minus prize payouts. Distributor system charges, including fees, cannot exceed 35% of gross receipts minus prize payouts.

Vendor earnings capped, charity payments tracked

Upon delivery of a paper series, vendors must pay its ideal net minus their compensation to the permit holder's person in charge or alternate. Payment must use a check or electronic transfer naming the payee. Vendor compensation cannot exceed 30% of receipts minus prizes for paper pull-tabs, or 25% for electronic pull-tabs. Vendors must report monthly amounts paid to permit holders on the department's schedule. By the fifth each month, distributors must make available the prior month's electronic income, prizes, and receipts minus prizes for each vendor location.

Distributors face gift and conduct limits

Distributors can give each municipality or qualified organization no more than $25 in value annually. Separately, allowed gaming marketing materials have a $250 annual cap; distributors must report their value and locations by the state's deadline. Distributors cannot provide value to premises owners or lessors, fund building or utility work, or play where their equipment is used. They cannot use paper pull-tab or bingo sales data, or alter equipment except for a last-ticket-sold sticker. Ownership restrictions cover manufacturer ties, and distributors cannot supply businesses owned or managed by relatives within two degrees of a distributor owner or employee.

Distributors gain access, but exclusivity remains

Manufacturers generally must sell equipment and paper pull-tabs to licensed distributors with annual Alaska sales exceeding $500,000 for at least three years. Refusals remain allowed for unlawful sales, overdue payments or their history, specified ownership ties, or manufacturers selling no equipment to Alaska distributors. Paper games with significantly unique graphics can stay exclusive for their first five production years; minor changes do not qualify. Afterward, games must reach all distributors unless the exclusive distributor sells only to one licensee. Exclusivity existing on December 31, 2026, can continue for two years from January 1, 2027, through January 1, 2029.

Pull-tab suppliers face local delivery rules

Manufacturers can distribute pull-tabs only to licensed distributors, unless they also hold a distributor license. Pull-tabs and electronic systems must be distributed from Alaska, not directly from outside the state. Distributors generally cannot take vendor orders, sell series to vendors, or deliver series to them. An exception allows electronic series delivery to a vendor's server for a permit holder authorized to sell there.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

Jesse Bjorkman
Republican • Senate

Cosponsors

Mike Cronk
Republican • Senate
Kelly Merrick
Republican • Senate
Robert Yundt
Republican • Senate

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 42 • No: 18

Senate vote • 5/12/2026

PASSED ON RECONSIDERATION Y17 N3

Yes: 17 • No: 3

Senate vote • 5/11/2026

PASSED Y14 N6

Yes: 14 • No: 6