Legislation
US – AGA asks President to intervene on Paycheck Protection Program rules
By Phil - 9 April 2020
American Gaming Association President and CEO Bill Miller has sent a letter to President Trump asking him to intervene on the Paycheck Protection Program’s (PPP) Interim Final Rules released by the Small Business Administration (SBA), which he says rely on ‘antiquated, discriminatory policy that renders small gaming entities ineligible to receive critical loan assistance designed to help small businesses pay their employees.’
Mr. Miller said: “The gaming industry is among the sectors most severely impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, in large part, due to mandated closure of facilities, which has jeopardised the livelihoods of the 1.8m Americans whose jobs we support across 43 states. The gaming industry is an important economic engine, job creator,and tax payer in 43 states. We share your overriding interest in employees retaining their jobs so they can get back to work quickly once this situation has subsided. Individuals who are laid off will otherwise be pushed into unemployment assistance and Medicaid. Not only are workers better off when they remain connected to their employer, this approach has long-term benefits to our economy. The dislocation costs associated with widespread unemployment are severe. Maintaining employees on payroll avoids rehiring complications, saves on future training costs, and increases productivity, which is essential to a faster economic recovery.”
“In addition to gaming’s considerable needs to pay and provide for our own direct workforce, the gaming industry also supports 350,000 small business jobs. Making SBA resources available to size-eligible gaming businesses is the right thing to do. As it stands, the policy discriminates against these mainstream businesses and, more importantly, the hundreds of thousands of employees who rely on gaming for their livelihood. Accordingly, I trust you will agree it is critical that gaming companies and their employees can benefit from SBA loan programs, as the CARES Act intended. Thank you for your attention to this request and your continued leadership on behalf of our great nation.”
