S.C.R. 230 Summary

• Urges the Governor to request the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism and Department of Health to establish a gambling task force to develop an evidence-based framework for future gambling legislation in Hawaii.

• Task force must assess negative impacts of gambling, evaluate effects on vulnerable populations, identify responsible gambling frameworks, evaluate tourism planning effects, conduct economic impact studies, develop youth education and prevention strategies, and establish problem gambling counselor training programs.

• Task force composition includes the Director of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism (chair), Director of Health, Director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Attorney General, and two public members with gambling knowledge appointed by Senate President and House Speaker.

• Research must be funded by dedicated revenue stream outside the general fund to evaluate illegal gambling disparities in Honolulu, examine reports on gambling's links to sex trafficking and domestic violence, and identify prevention and treatment options for estimated 30,000 problematic and pathological gamblers in Hawaii.

• Task force must submit findings and legislative recommendations to the Legislature no later than twenty days before the 2023 and 2024 regular sessions and dissolves on June 30, 2024.