Small US casinos have finally been deemed eligible to participate in the federal government’s pandemic relief program following heavy campaigning by the industry’s main lobby group.
On Friday, the Small Business Administration (SBA) issued yet another revision to its Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the COVID-19 relief effort that offers small businesses loans of up to $10m, which can be written off if at least three-quarters of the lent sum goes toward paying staff that would otherwise get the sack.
The SBA’s pre-pandemic rules forbid coming to the financial aid of any company that derives “more than one-third of gross annual revenue from legal gambling activities.” The SBA amended that policy last week to make companies eligible if gaming provided up to 50% of annual revenue but capped that revenue at $1m, effectively excluding all businesses except bars that host a few slot machines.
On Friday, the SBA announced that a business was no longer “rendered ineligible due to its receipt of legal gaming revenues.” The SBA said that, after consulting with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin — who said last week that the PPP explicitly excluded small casinos — it believes this new approach is “more consistent with the policy aim of making PPP loans available to a broad segment of U.S. businesses.”
